The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed a temporary measure to fund the federal government until early March, preventing a partial shutdown at the end of the week. The bill has been forwarded to President Joe Biden for his signature.
314 members of the lower house of Congress voted for the measure, while 108 were against - including 106 Republicans and two Democrats.
Previously, the same proposal was adopted by the Senate, with 77 votes in favor and 18 against.
"We have good news for America. There will be no government shutdown on Friday," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said before the upper house voted on temporary government funding.
Both houses of Congress accelerated the voting process because snow - forecast for Friday - could prevent members from leaving Washington for the weekend.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have not yet fulfilled their basic duty, which is to pass a full budget for the fiscal year that began on October 1. That is why they are adopting temporary measures to finance the government, to avoid its partial shutdown.
Schumer and the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, reached an agreement at the beginning of the month on the level of discretionary budget spending of 590 billion dollars for the fiscal year that ends on September 30.
However, due to deep divisions in Congress, the two parties now disagree on the agreed-upon figure, with Democrats claiming that budget spending was agreed to be $660 billion.
As House Republicans, who seek major budget cuts, and Democrats continue to wrangle, the $34 trillion national debt is growing rapidly, raising concerns in part because of the high interest rates being paid by the Treasury Department.
The third adopted measure for temporary financing of the government envisages that last year's spending levels will be extended until March 1 and 8, respectively.
Ahead of the vote, Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer warned of possible consequences of the government shutdown, including a worsening backlog of veterans' claims for disability benefits, a possible suspension of aircraft safety inspections, and a freeze on farm loans. Also, more than a million military personnel would not receive salaries.
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