Lawmakers reach bipartisan funding deal to avert government shutdown

Feb. 28 (UPI) -- A proposed bipartisan funding deal announced Wednesday would prevent a partial shutdown of the federal government if lawmakers approve the measure no later than Friday.

A stopgap funding measure would fund about 20% of the federal government for a few more weeks and delay potential shutdowns at least until March 8 for some programs and March 22 for others, national media reported.

Federal lawmakers had until Friday to enact a short-term funding deal to keep the federal government fully open and operational. House members are expected to vote on the measure Thursday, followed by the Senate that afternoon or evening.

"We are in agreement that Congress must work in a bipartisan manner to fund our government," U.S. Senate and House leaders said in a joint statement Wednesday.

The legislative leaders said the stopgap measure, if approved, will buy them time to work out a deal to keep the federal government fully funded through the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 31.

The proposed stopgap measure temporarily would fund a third of federal programs that would have lost their funding on Friday. Another eight spending bills are scheduled to expire a week later on March 8.

Under the proposed funding legislation, federal lawmakers extended until March 8 a deadline to fund the Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Interior, Justice, and Housing and Urban Development departments with permanent bills for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Lawmakers say they have reached agreements on six funding bills for the six departments, but they needed more time to run them through the legislative process.

Another six funding bills would keep the Labor, Health and Human Services, Defense and other federal departments open until March 22 to give lawmakers additional time to finalize those departments' funding for the rest of the fiscal year.

If lawmakers don't approve the stopgap measure by the end of the day Friday, a partial shutdown of the federal government would occur on Saturday and last until funding is put in place.

The House will require at least some Democrats to vote with the GOP to pass the stopgap measure, while the Senate will require all 100 votes to hasten the vote on the stopgap measure by the end of the day Friday, Politico reported.