Senate Leaders Unveil Deal to Avoid Shutdown Until Dec. 11

WASHINGTON — Key senators unveiled a short-term spending bill on Sunday that would keep federal agencies funded past the midterm elections and into early December, an effort to avoid a government shutdown in the middle of campaign season.

The bill generally funds the federal government at current levels through Dec. 11. The Senate is likely to vote on the measure before leaving Washington at the end of the week for its traditional August recess.

The House has passed a similar measure, but it did not include various exceptions sought by the White House, and senators have spent recent days negotiating which of those to keep. One request that did not make it into the Senate bill, Democrats noted, was $1 billion to build "Trump-class" battleships. Democrats also say they secured language ensuring the administration cannot transfer funds from other programs to the Border Patrol.

The timing is unusual. Congress normally waits until the final days or hours before a funding deadline to pass stopgaps; this time senators are acting two months before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said passing the measure was his top priority going into the recess, noting that Americans have already lived through two record-breaking shutdowns in the past 10 months. "We need to ensure that they do not face a third," Thune said.

Neither party escaped blame for last fall's record 43-day shutdown, which began when Democrats demanded an extension of an expiring health insurance tax credit and Republicans said that was a separate fight. A second battle, over Department of Homeland Security funding, took 76 days to resolve.

The extension buys time for the dozen annual appropriations bills. That will not be easy: President Donald Trump has proposed a 10% cut to non-defense programs overall while boosting defense spending by roughly 44%.

Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican chair of the Appropriations Committee, and Democrats are also seeking to block a proposed rule requiring a senior political appointee at each agency to review grant proposals, including for "ensuring that discretionary awards advance the President's policy priorities." Collins and Sen. Patty Murray said the rule would not take effect during the stopgap.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the effort "disgraceful." The White House Office of Management and Budget says it is about accountability for taxpayer dollars.