House Democrats introduce stopgap bill to fund government until March 11 ahead of looming deadline

By Clare Foran, CNN

House Democrats on Monday introduced a short-term measure to extend government funding through March 11, an effort to avert a shutdown at the end of next week since funding is currently set to expire on February 18.

House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut, introduced the stopgap bill, otherwise known as a continuing resolution. The measure is expected to be taken up by the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Once the House has approved the bill, the Senate would next need to take it up and pass it before it could be sent to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.

Congressional negotiators on both sides of the aisle have been working on a bipartisan basis to try to secure a full-year funding agreement, but a deal has not yet been reached.

“Our country needs a government funding agreement to create good-paying jobs, grow opportunity for the middle class, and protect our national security. We are close to reaching a framework government funding agreement, but we will need additional time to complete the legislation in full,” DeLauro said in a statement. “This Continuing Resolution — the product of bipartisan, bicameral negotiation — extends funding through March 11 to keep government up and running while Congress completes our important work.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said over the weekend that Congress would aim to pass a short-term stopgap this week to avoid a government shutdown while continuing to negotiate on a larger government funding bill.

“Negotiations are very vigorous, and I think that we’re going to get agreement both on the top line, how much spending is going to be, and how it will be spent. It’s not there yet,” the Maryland Democrat said.

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CNN’s Manu Raju contributed to this report.