President Trump Signs Stopgap Spending Bill to Keep Government Funded

President Donald Trump signed a stopgap spending bill early Oct 1 to keep the government funded through early December, after the Senate overwhelmingly agreed (84-10) to punt a series of thorny debates about federal funding once the general election was over. The funding was set to lapse at midnight, with the official start of the new fiscal year, and President Trump signed the measure nearly an hour afterward as he returned from a campaign rally in Minnesota. In giving final approval to the measure, lawmakers completed the last of the essential legislative tasks that were keeping them in Washington before the election on Nov. 3, clearing the way for Congress to begin a recess and for members to scatter around the country to campaign for re-election. It remained unclear, however, when lawmakers would depart, as top House Democrats and Trump administration officials made a final push for an elusive bipartisan deal on an economic recovery plan that both sides have said is desperately needed to address the continuing toll of the pandemic. Senators were also bracing for the possibility that a partisan feud over Trump’s Supreme Court nominee could bleed into next week, keeping that chamber in session.

Both chambers will ultimately need to confront the dozen unfinished bills to keep the government funded for the remainder of the new fiscal year. Democrats had unsuccessfully pushed to extend the funding through February, hoping to negotiate more favorable deals if their party captured control of both the Senate and the White House and maintained a majority in the House. But Republicans refused to accept that timeline, agreeing to a measure that provides funding through Dec. 11, which would require a lame-duck Congress to determine the spending levels after the election.