The Senate passed a temporary spending bill Saturday, funding the government through Wednesday and giving legislators more time to consider a $1.1 trillion measure.
The Senate — which convened in a rare weekend session — is largely expected to pass the spending package that would fund most federal agencies through Sept. 30.
The House narrowly approved the funding bill by a 219-206 vote Thursday, hours before government funding was set to run out.
Some Senate Democrats and Republicans oppose the measure because of provisions that would ease Wall Street regulations and campaign finance laws. President Obama has said he supports the bill.
On Friday, conservative Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, blocked efforts to prevent a weekend session in the Senate. Cruz and other conservatives have complained about Obama’s immigration executive order and want to use the spending bill to defund efforts to implement it.
In an exchange on the Senate floor Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Democratic Majority Whip Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois blamed the delay on Cruz.
Durbin asked whether Cruz was also the senator who shut down the government last year in protest over the Affordable Care Act.
“The very same man,” Reid replied. “Now he’s hung up not only on the Affordable Care Act, but the president’s action to give 5 million people relief in this country so that they can come out of the shadows and make our country a more productive place.”
Cruz, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, said Reid was “going to an embarrassing length to tie up the floor to obstruct debate and a vote on this issue because he knows amnesty is unpopular with the American people, and he doesn’t want the Democrats on the record as supporting it.”
The Saturday session began at noon, and Senators spent much of the day considering a slew of nominees for judicial and administration posts. Senators usually leave Thursday or Friday to return to their home states.
Votes on the full spending measure as well as others in the coming week would wrap up the 113th Congress and end Democratic control of the Senate.
Contributing: The Associated Press
