President Joe Biden on Thursday night signed Congress’ stopgap funding bill to avert a shutdown and extend government funding through December 3. The Senate and House voted on Thursday to pass a measure to resupply the federal government with funds until December in order to avoid a shutdown that was set to take place at midnight. The Senate voted 65-35 and the House voted 254-175 in support of the stopgap funding bill. Congress then sent the bill to President Biden’s desk for a signature before the midnight deadline, at which point the government would have had to partially shut down.
Biden canceled a trip to Chicago on Wednesday to stay in Washington, D.C., to facilitate a deal to avoid a shutdown and work on debt ceiling negotiations. The White House said Biden would sign a measure quickly to keep federal employees working beyond Thursday. Biden said in a statement that “the passage of this bill reminds us that bipartisan work is possible and it gives us time to pass longer-term funding to keep our government running and delivering for the American people.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers last week that she expects that Congress has until about Oct. 18 to raise the debt ceiling before the government starts defaulting on payments, which would make borrowing more money more expensive and more difficult.