Congress reaches spending deal to avert shutdown

What happened

Congressional leaders on Tuesday unveiled a bipartisan stopgap spending bill that would fund the government through March 14, averting a partial government shutdown starting at midnight on Friday. The legislation includes $100.4 billion in hurricane and disaster relief, $10 billion in direct economic assistance to farmers and an "array of unrelated policy measures on health, energy, digital privacy and other matters," The New York Times said.

Who said what

The package "ignited a firestorm among some Republicans, who complained about its 'Christmas tree' nature," The Wall Street Journal said. Conservative anger over the "dreaded end-of-year 'Christmas tree,' decorated with lawmakers' pet projects," could still "endanger any agreement" and "imperil" Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) bid to retain his gavel in the narrowly divided House, The Washington Post said.

"It's not a Christmas tree," Johnson said Tuesday. The spending bill was, until recently, "very simple, very clean," but "we have to be able to help those who are in these dire straits." Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the legislation was "free of cuts and poison pills."

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What next?

House Republicans "generally give lawmakers 72 hours to review text of the legislation," which would push a final vote to Friday, The Associated Press said. "The Senate is not known for acting speedily," but lawmakers are "anxious" to flee Washington until January.