US Congress passes stopgap bill extending government funding amid shutdown fears

The US Senate passed a short-term bill also known as the stop-gap bill on Thursday extending government funding until the end of March as funding for some federal agencies and programs is bound to expire, Xinhua reported.

The House of Representatives will take up the measure after the upper house approved it by a vote of 77–18.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stated on X, formerly known as Twitter, "The Senate has just passed the bill to fund the government and avoid an unnecessary shutdown."

Congress has now passed three bills extending funding for federal agencies.

Since September, Congress has been grappling with reaching a consensus on full-year government funding bills, resulting in the introduction of the third temporary measure.

A stopgap bill is a short-term bill also called continuing resolution, or CR. This would extend government funding from January until March.

In case of a shutdown, what it means is that people across the country see a pause in federal services, and programming, employees go without pay and programs run out of funding to operate.

The spending bill is separate from the ongoing negotiations concerning immigration and does not include additional aid for Israel or Ukraine.