Congress works to avert government shutdown

Lawmakers are patching together a temporary spending bill to avert a government shutdown after Republicans killed a $1.2 trillion "omnibus" measure that was loaded with the pet projects known as earmarks.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) abandoned the omnibus bill Thursday after several Republicans he had been counting on withdrew their support for the plan, which would have funded government programs and agencies through Sept. 30, 2011.

Reid said lawmakers would instead write a short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution.

The House Friday approved, by voice vote, legislation that would keep the government running through Tuesday while lawmakers negotiate a longer-term extension. Several hours later, the Senate approved the resolution. A stopgap measure currently funding the government expires Saturday.

A new stopgap measure could set the stage for a spending fight early next year between President Barack Obama's administration and Republicans, who will control the House in the new Congress and who have promised to slash spending by $100 billion.

The decision to pull the omnibus measure was a victory for Republicans, who lined up against the bill even though most had included in it funding for projects in their home states.

Republicans complained they were only given days to consider the 1,924-page measure, which was introduced Dec. 14.

Critics of earmarks hailed the bill's defeat. "This is a great, great victory for the American people," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)

But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) said Republicans sank a bill they had helped write and after his colleagues dropped billions from the measure to meet their demands to reduce spending.

The derailing of the omnibus bill, which included about $160 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and also included a food-safety measure, is the latest in a series of breakdowns this year in the congressional budgeting process.

Congress failed to approve an annual tax-and-spending blueprint or any of the 12 annual appropriations bills needed to fund agencies for the 2011 fiscal year.