House Republicans working on averting another shutdown

Published 8:01 am Tuesday, February 6, 2018

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republican leaders have come out with a plan to keep the government open for six more weeks while Washington grapples with a potential follow-up budget pact and, perhaps, immigration legislation.

GOP leaders announced they would seek to pass the stopgap spending bill by marrying it with a full-year, $659 billion Pentagon spending bill that’s a top priority of the party’s legion of defense hawks.

The measure would keep the government running through March 23 and also reauthorize for funding for community health centers that enjoy widespread bipartisan support.

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Pairing the Pentagon’s budget with only temporary money for the rest of the government wouldn’t go anywhere in the Senate, vowed Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who said it “would be barreling head first into a dead-end.”