House approves bill to keep government open, avoid shutdown
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Congress is sending legislation to President Barack Obama that would head off the threat of a government shutdown at midnight Wednesday.
Democrats helped embattled House GOP leaders pass the measure by a sweeping 277-151 vote with just hours to spare. The Senate passed the legislation by a 78-20 tally earlier in the day.
Approval of such stopgap measures used to be routine, but debate this year was delayed by tea party lawmakers who demanded that the must-pass bill be used to punish Planned Parenthood, stripping it of federal money because of its practice of supplying tissue from aborted fetuses for scientific research.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The bill provides 10 weeks to negotiate a more wide-ranging budget deal that would carry past the 2016 presidential election.