Trump Signs Short-Term Spending Bill That Avoids Government Shutdown--2nd Update
November 21 2019 - 07:00PM
Dow Jones News
By Andrew Duehren
WASHINGTON -- President Trump signed a short-term spending bill
hours before the government was set to run out of money, as
disagreements on border-wall funding have again stymied progress on
the full-year funding bills.
Earlier Thursday, the Senate approved the stopgap measure, which
keeps the government funded through Dec. 20. The House passed the
bill Tuesday.
The bill also provides for a 3.1% pay increase for military
personnel, sets funding aside for conducting the decennial census
and extends funding for a number of health-care programs. Current
government funding expires after the end of Thursday.
Lawmakers soon will leave Washington for a recess until after
the Thanksgiving holiday, setting up a three-week legislative
sprint to reach a compromise on an issue that has long divided
Washington: allocating money for building a wall along the
U.S.-Mexico border. The last government shutdown, which started on
Dec. 22 last year and lasted a record 35 days, began when Mr. Trump
and the then GOP-controlled Congress couldn't reach an agreement on
border-wall funding.
Negotiators are first working toward dividing spending between
the 12 full-year funding bills, an important prerequisite to any
eventual agreement. Democrats argue that money that Republicans
want to put toward wall construction should instead be used for
domestic programs.
Any eventual agreement also will need to settle other questions
related to border-security funding.
Democrats want to limit the president's ability to transfer
money around the government after Mr. Trump repurposed billions in
Pentagon funds last year for building a wall. They also don't want
to replace money Mr. Trump used for wall funding, including the
roughly $3.6 billion the administration pulled from military
construction projects earlier this year.
Senate Democrats have repeatedly protested Republican efforts to
approve more money for border-wall construction, voting against a
Senate bill providing $5 billion for the wall in committee and
blocking consideration of another funding package on the floor.
Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 21, 2019 18:45 ET (23:45 GMT)
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