{
  "id": 313198,
  "title": "Senate passes funding bill to prevent shutdown through US midterms",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/08/senate-passes-funding-bill-to-prevent-shutdown-through-us-midterms",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-08T12:07:52.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Guardian US",
    "slug": "the-guardian-us",
    "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/08/government-shutdown-vote-senate-funding-bill"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The US Senate has approved a funding bill on Friday, preventing a government shutdown through the upcoming midterms. The continuing resolution (CR), passed with a 90-6 vote, will maintain current funding levels until December 11, extending beyond the midterms on November 3, in hopes of Democrats regaining control of Congress and halting President Trump's legislative agenda. The bill's passage signals a mutual desire among both parties to avert a potential shutdown in the weeks leading up to the November vote. The government would have shut down on September 30 if no funding had been approved. Senate appropriations committee chair Susan Collins hailed the CR as a significant step towards avoiding a damaging shutdown that harms vital programs and federal workers, stating it does not alter funding levels. The House had previously approved a different CR extending funding until December 4, with the chamber currently on recess until the end of the month, and senators expected to leave Washington D.C. for a break following the vote. The Democratic minority leader, Chuck Schumer, highlighted the Senate's bill addressing several critical issues, including blocking a new White House rule feared by Democrats to potentially cancel grants at the administration's discretion. Additionally, the Senate CR resolves a loophole in the House bill allowing the White House to divert funds meant for one purpose to another, such as supporting border patrol. Democrats initiated a government shutdown last year by refusing to approve funding bills without extending subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans, leading to the longest funding lapse in US history, though no agreement was reached to keep cost offsets after the shutdown ended 43 days later. Earlier this year, government agencies briefly shut down again after Democrats blocked a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in protest of the killings by federal agents of two US citizens during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. While an agreement was eventually reached to fund DHS operations exclusive of agencies involved in Trump's mass deportation efforts, Republicans quickly passed a party-line bill allocating funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection for the duration of Trump's presidency, with no reforms to immigration enforcement.",
  "summary": "The US Senate has passed a government funding bill that will prevent a shutdown through the midterm elections. The bill, which passed with a 90-6 vote, will keep the government running at its current funding levels until December 11. This date is more than a month past the midterms, in which Democrats are hoping to regain control of Congress and block President Donald Trump's legislative agenda for the final two years of his presidency.\n\nThe bill must still be approved by the House of Representatives. If passed, it will maintain current funding levels, with a few exceptions, and blocks the Trump administration from implementing certain rules, including one that would give senior political appointees a larger role in reviewing federal grants. According to Axios, it also prevents the administration from transferring money from other programs to the Border Patrol and rejects a White House request for $1 billion to begin work on a new class of battleships.\n\nThe Senate's bipartisan effort to pass the stopgap spending bill aims to avoid a government shutdown before the November midterms. The bill's passage comes after two shutdowns within the past year and with the political pressure of an approaching election. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who chairs the Appropriations Committee, framed the vote as a lesson learned, stating that putting the possibility of another shutdown off the table should be a priority.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}