Senate clears funding patch to kick shutdown cliff into March

The Senate passed a short-term funding bill Thursday night to head off a government shutdown, after Democrats bent to Republican demands for controversial votes on vaccine mandates.

The three-week spending patch is expected to hit President Joe Biden’s desk well before government funding runs out at midnight Friday. Punting the next deadline to March 11, the stopgap bill gives top lawmakers more time to negotiate a broad bipartisan package to hike federal spending through September.

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