Congress averted a government shutdown last night, with only hours to spare, when the Senate voted 88-9 to pass a clean continuing resolution. The Senate vote came several hours after the House voted 335-91 in favor of a clean continuing resolution that keeps the government open until Nov. 17, one that did not include any aid for Ukraine—a White House priority—or the spending cuts and border money demanded by conservative Republicans. While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer hailed the “bipartisanship” in the Senate, House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy lamented the split within his own caucus. “Let me tell you, today wasn’t a choice we wanted to have. We tried to pass the most conservative stopgap measure possible,” he said after the vote on Sept. 30, reported The Hill. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have 218 Republicans.”
Biden signed the bill just before midnight last night. The drama continues, however, as the House and Senate continue to wrangle over 12 appropriations bills and if they fail to move them, the threat of a government shutdown looms again for November.