Congress passed a temporary spending bill to avert a partial U.S. government shutdown this weekend, sending the legislation to the White House, where President Joe Biden plans to sign it.
The interim measure would finance some U.S. agencies — set to run out of money after Friday — through March 1 and others through March 8.
The House voted 314 to 108 Thursday to pass the short-term funding just hours after the Senate approved it. Nearly half of House Republicans voted against the measure while Democrats overwhelmingly supported it.
House Speaker Mike Johnson rebuffed a last-minute effort by ultraconservative Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus to scuttle the legislation by adding demands on immigration policy changes anathema to many Democrats.
"Americans did not give Republicans a majority in the House to continue Nancy Pelosi's inflationary spending and Joe Biden's failed policies," the Freedom Caucus said in a statement just before the vote opposing the bill.
Some Republican hardliners are angered that the speaker went back on a promise he made in November not to allow more temporary extensions of funding and bucked ultraconservatives who want to use the threat of a government shutdown to pressure Biden to accept border policy changes.
Johnson instead held up emergency war funds for Ukraine as leverage in border talks, leading to an impasse on Ukraine aid.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden would sign the temporary measure but urged Congress to settle on long-term funding to keep open the government.
