US President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a stopgap bill that will keep the government funded through early December, narrowly averting a government shutdown, The Hill reported.
The House and Senate each passed the continuing resolution earlier Thursday. The bill funds government operations through December 3 and includes $28.6 billion in additional disaster relief and $6.3 billion for Afghan refugee resettlement, as requested by the White House.
Government funds were due to run out at midnight had the bill not been approved.
The House last week passed a nearly identical stopgap funding bill along party lines that also included a provision that would have suspended the debt limit until mid-December of next year. Senate Republicans, who have refused to vote to suspend or raise the debt ceiling because of Democrats’ plans to pass a multitrillion reconciliation package, blocked the bill on Monday evening.
The measure signed into law by Biden on Thursday does not include a provision suspending the debt ceiling. It passed the Senate in a 65-35 vote and cleared the House in a 254-175 vote.