WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has sent a stopgap spending bill to President Barack Obama that's needed to prevent a government shutdown on Friday at midnight.
The bill passed by a voice vote. It gives negotiators in the lame-duck Congress two more weeks to try to pass a bill funding the government for the rest of the budget year, which ends Sept. 30.
If that fails, lawmakers would have to pass another stopgap measure to fund agency budgets into next year, when Republicans will control the House.
The Democratic-controlled Congress hasn't passed a single annual spending bills in an unprecedented breakdown of the budget process.
The House approved the legislation Wednesday.
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