Photo: ReutersWashington: Congress passed a two-week extension of federal funding that averts a government shutdown this week but defers decisions on spending levels for defence and domestic programs. Under the original plan, Congress in January would hash out the remaining details of a trillion-dollar spending bill for the rest of the fiscal year. A key issue has been whether the $549 billion defence spending cap would be raised by a larger amount than the $516 billion non-defence cap. It wants to attach the full-year 2018 defence spending bill to the stopgap spending bill that would keep the rest of the government open only until January. Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker said GOP lawmakers agreed to go along with a two-week bill after Ryan promised to push Democrats to pass the defence spending bill separately and to keep immigration and payments to Obamacare insurers out of the next stopgap.

Source: Mint December 08, 2017 04:30 UTC