Legislators voted on two temporary spending measures to prevent a shutdown at the end of the fiscal year, which concludes Sept. 30. Senate Republicans were asking that any additional funding for disaster relief be offset by equal cuts to other programs. Both houses had been scheduled to be in recess.
Democrats did not agree, so neither side would pass a temporary budget to keep the government operating past the end of the fiscal year. On Monday, FEMA said it had enough money to help disaster victims through the end of the budget year, so the argument became moot.
The Senate passed two continuing resolution bills on Monday night, one to extend current spending through Oct. 4, and one to authorize temporary funding to carry the government through Nov. 13, C-SPAN reported.
Congress will be back in session on Tuesday, Oct. 4, and will tackle the details of the longer term spending plan.
“We prevented an unnecessary and damaging government shutdown,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in remarks broadcast on C-SPAN. “I’m very happy that 26 Republicans joined us tonight in doing the right thing.”
