Reid proposes 30-day bill to avert shutdown

[Joanne98]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Democrat in the Senate said Tuesday that he'll bring legislation to the floor next week to keep the government running at current spending levels for 30 days to avoid a shutdown in March.

The move by Majority Leader Harry Reid is in keeping with longstanding tradition, but it was immediately rejected by GOP leaders who assailed the Nevada Democrat for freezing spending at levels inflated by generous budget increases provided under President Barack Obama.

A short-term bill is required because the House on Saturday passed a $1.2 trillion omnibus spending bill to finance the government through Sept. 30. That measure would slash domestic agency budgets by more than $60 billion over the last seven months of the budget year, which would lead to widespread furloughs of federal workers and dismantle a host of environmental regulations.

It will take weeks or even months to work out differences on the massive spending bill, thus requiring the stopgap bill.



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[bhikkhu]

1. "Generous budget increases provided under President Barack Obama"?

That's an odd way of putting it. Discretionary spending has been frozen for almost his entire term.