The Senate late Wednesday quickly approved a two-month spending bill and sent it to the House, just two days before funding is set to expire for several federal agencies.
Senators passed the bill with little debate and by voice vote. The bill funds the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies through Feb. 8.
After the voice vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Senate would be in session on Thursday because it needs to see what the House does with the bill. But the House is expected to quickly approve it.
The final hurdle is President Trump, who has not said specifically whether he will sign the measure or veto it. Trump has been pushing for $5 billion in new funding for a border wall, which is not in the bill the Senate passed Wednesday night.
[Read more: Fox News host urges Trump to veto ‘crap’ bill with no wall funding]
But while Trump has said previously he would be “proud” to veto any bill that doesn’t include his wall funding, the White House this week has said it’s exploring whether it can draw unused funds from elsewhere in the federal government.
If Trump can accept the two-month spending bill, it would delay until February the fight over how much Congress should appropriate to build Trump’s wall. Democrats have held the line at a maximum of $1.6 billion.
Democrats this week rejected a compromise offer from Senate Republicans that would have provided about $2.6 billion for border security. The failed negotiations prompted the GOP to write the short-term funding bill.
The vast majority of government spending was signed into law earlier this year, including money for the Defense Department, Veterans Department, and the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.
The short-term spending bill is among the final measures lawmakers will consider this Congress. If it passes into law, the next funding fight will happen with Democrats in charge of the House, while Republicans will remain in control of the Senate.
Some Senate Republicans, like Sen. David Perdue of Georgia, opposed the short-term bill because it didn’t allow for any increase in disaster funding.
“It is very clear that this continuing resolution is improper,” Perdue said. “It should not be done, and it puts the people who have been devastated by hurricanes and wildfires at risk. Going forward, we need to find a way to create a politically neutral platform to fund this government on time, every year, without all this drama.”
