House passes bill to avert shutdown hours ahead of deadline

(CNN) —& The House voted on Friday to pass a stopgap funding bill in a bid to avert a shutdown just hours before a midnight deadline.The Senate must take up the bill next before it can be sent to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer posted on X that he is “confident” the Senate will vote to avert a shutdown and hopes “to get it passed as soon as possible.”The bill extends government funding into March and provides disaster relief and farm aid, but it does not include a suspension of the debt limit, which President-elect Donald Trump had demanded Republicans address.The successful vote in the House followed a tumultuous 24 hours on Capitol Hill as Republicans scrambled to find a way to prevent a shutdown after Trump upended the funding push by coming out against an initial bipartisan deal.Trump’s opposition to the bipartisan agreement led Republicans to tank the deal, infuriating Democrats. The Republican-led House then& tried and failed& on Thursday to pass a GOP funding plan backed by Trump that would have included a two-year suspension of the debt limit.That bill failed amid opposition from Democrats as well as a significant number...