House passes two-day CR

The House on Friday passed a two-day, stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown and provide negotiators additional time to iron out details on a larger funding and COVID-19 relief package.

Both parties are still feverishly negotiating a long-stalled coronavirus relief package, but acknowledged that they needed more time to iron out remaining sticking points.

The House passed the continuing resolution (CR) by a vote of 320-60. House Democrats unveiled the measure to keep the government open through Sunday less than eight hours before current funding expires at midnight.

Senate GOP leaders are hoping to similarly move the CR through the upper chamber before the midnight deadline.

But at least one senator, Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), threatened earlier in the day to block passage of the bill unless congressional leaders provided a detailed update on the coronavirus relief negotiations. He later backed down and said that he would allow the stopgap bill to pass.