Congress averts a government shutdown with a temporary spending bill

Congress will avoid a government shutdown.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 28 April 2017

Congress on Friday passed a stopgap spending bill, keeping the government funded through May 5 and dodging a looming government shutdown on President Trump's 100th day in office Saturday. The spending extension easily passed the House, 382-30, and it passed the Senate in a voice vote. The bill will now go to Trump's desk.

Lawmakers were staring down a deadline of Friday at midnight to either pass a spending bill or see a partial government shutdown. Now that the stopgap bill has passed Congress, legislators on Capitol Hill will have an additional week to negotiate a $1 trillion spending bill financing government agencies through the end of the federal government's fiscal year.