The House of Representatives is expected to vote Thursday on a stopgap bill to avert a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.
Congress is confronting a pair of shutdown deadlines – on March 1 and March 8. At the end of the day Friday, funding will expire for a series of key government agencies if lawmakers do not act.
On Wednesday, congressional leaders announced an agreement on six appropriations bills and said the package of full-year bills will be enacted before March 8, while the remaining appropriations bills to fund the rest of the government will be finalized and passed before March 22.
To provide time for the full-year bills to be finalized and passed, a stopgap bill will extend funding on a short-term basis and set up two deadlines on March 8 and March 22.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has been under intense pressure from his right flank to fight for conservative wins in the government funding battle, and hardline conservatives are likely to push back on the prospect of another short-term funding bill.
Johnson won the gavel after conservatives ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a historic vote last year, raising the question of whether the Louisiana Republican may at some point face a similar threat against his speakership.
The six funding bills that lawmakers have reached an agreement on and plan to pass before March 8 include departments of Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice and Science, Energy and Water Development, Interior, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development.
The remaining six appropriations bills that lawmakers plan to vote on prior to March 22 are Defense, Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Labor-Health and Human Services, the Legislative Branch…
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