WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democratic U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday said he was taking the first procedural step towards passing a stopgap funding bill to avert a partial government shutdown that otherwise would begin late next week.
Schumer did not provide an end-date for the measure during a speech to the Senate.
He said he was advancing the temporary funding bill so the Senate can begin voting on it when it returns on Tuesday from a Martin Luther King holiday recess. Little time remains before funding runs out on Jan. 19 for some sprawling federal agencies, including the departments of Agriculture and Transportation.
Schumer and Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday announced that they had reached agreement on a $1.59 trillion top-line spending number for government agencies in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
But right-wing Republican conservatives in the House are angry over that amount of spending and are seeking deeper cuts.
“There are those on the hard right over in the House who think they can bully their colleagues and the House and the country into a shutdown,” Schumer said.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone)
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