Congress puts shutdown fight on hold with stopgap spending resolution

(Image credit: Mark Makela/Getty Images)

It's been a busy day for Congress.

In between public impeachment hearings, House lawmakers voted 231-192 to pass a continuing resolution that will postpone a government shutdown fight until Dec. 20. That's good news in the sense that there won't be a shutdown in two days, which was the initial deadline, but The Hill notes that broader spending negotiations were stalled.

Republicans and Democrats remain at odds over funding for President Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Democrats are trying to avoid providing Trump with the $5 billion he's requested for the wall by allocating that amount to the Homeland Security bill. If that were to happen, it could potentially mean that the amount would come out of other bills that they're prioritizing such as the Labor, Health, and Human Services and Education bill.

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The continuing resolution did include provisions providing funding for U.S. census efforts and a 3.1 percent military pay raise, The Hill notes, so it wasn't purely a stopgap.

The Senate is expected to pass the measure quickly, The Hill reports, and Trump reportedly supports the action. Read more at The Hill.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.