WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Congress is expected to vote March 8 on a spending bill to fund U.S. government operations through the end of September, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday.
U.S. lawmakers last month https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-aims-prompt-passage-stop-gap-bill-avert-government-shutdown-2022-02-17 had approved a stopgap funding bill to fund federal agencies through March 11. Wide swaths of the U.S. government could be forced to shut down if Congress does not pass a spending bill by that date.
"I've urged us to get that done at the beginning of next week so the Senate can get that done prior to the 11th," Hoyer said in a call with reporters. "We have to pass it by then."
He added that he had urged the chair of the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, Rosa DeLauro, to work on getting a bill together that could go to the House floor "hopefully as early as Tuesday."
The government has been operating on temporary spending extensions since Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year, as Republicans and Democrats have struggled to agree on funding levels.