WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress moved rapidly on Thursday to send President Donald Trump a short-term funding bill to avert a government shutdown this weekend, leaving fights over budget priorities and a range of other controversial issues for the coming weeks.
The House of Representatives, working against a Friday midnight deadline, approved legislation in a 235-193 vote to fund a wide range of federal programs through Dec. 22.
The Senate followed up by approving the bill 81-14. The White House has said Trump will sign it into law.
The measure creates more time for a reckoning between Republicans and Democrats about budget differences, which Trump discussed in a meeting with leading lawmakers at the White House earlier in the day.
“We hope that we’re going to make some great progress for our country. I think that will happen,” Trump said.
The White House said negotiations would resume on Friday.
Congress passes bill to temporarily fund government, avert shutdown
He said the White House wants a deal that covers spending for fiscal years 2018 and 2019.
Earlier on Thursday, Schumer said Trump seemed to be rooting for a shutdown and warned that, if one occurs, “it will fall on his shoulders.”
“His party controls the Senate, the House and the presidency,” he said. “Nobody here wants to see a shutdown. We Democrats are not interested in one.”
Pelosi said Democrats were not willing to shut down the government over the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) immigration program, but she also said “we will not leave here without a DACA fix.”
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