Senate leaders reach funding deal to avoid shutdown during campaign season

WASHINGTON (AP) — Key senators unveiled a short-term spending bill on Sunday that would keep federal agencies funded past the midterm elections and into early December as they look to avoid a government shutdown during the middle of campaign season. The Senate is likely to vote on the measure before leaving Washington at week’s end for its traditional August recess, a period that many lawmakers want to spend shoring up their reelection prospects rather than working in the nation’s capital. The bill generally funds the federal government at current levels though Dec.

The House has passed a similar measure, but it did not include various exceptions sought by the White House. Senators have been spending recent days negotiating which of those exceptions to include. One exception that did not make the cut, Democrats noted, was the administration’s request to include $1 billion to build “Trump-class” battleships.

The late-summer action on a funding fix is unusual. Normally, Congress waits until the final days or hours of a funding deadline to pass short-term funding extensions, but this time senators are acting two months before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said passing the measure was his top priority going into the August recess.

He noted that the American people have already experienced two record-breaking government shutdowns in the past 10 months. “We need to ensure that they do not face a third,” Thune said. Both parties want to avoid another shutdown A short-term funding extension is needed because Congress has struggled to get the dozen annual appropriations bills negotiated and approved before the Sept.

By extending government funding now, lawmakers can use the ensuing months to work out their differences on full-year funding. It won’t be an easy lift as Republicans seek a dramatic increase in defense spending while cutting non-defense spending. Trump proposed a 10% cut in non-defense programs overall.

Meanwhile, he called for boosting defense spending by some 44%. A potential shutdown before voters go to the polls is a scenario that both parties are looking to avoid, as polling indicated that neither party evaded blame for last fall’s record 43-day shutdown. Democrats sought to extend an expiring health insurance tax credit and refused to go along with a short-term spending bill that did not …