U.S. House passes stopgap spending bill to avoid gov't shutdown

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a two-week stopgap spending bill one day before a deadline to avoid government shutdown.

The House passed the bill mostly along party lines in the 235-193 vote. The Senate is expected to pass the bill, as Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said on Thursday morning that they are making progress on budget talks.

The spending bill will fund the federal government operation through Dec. 22 and give lawmakers more time to negotiate a bipartisan budget deal. Once the budget deal is reached, lawmakers can work out detailed spending plan that would fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year 2018 which ends on Sept. 30 next year. Enditem