WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee, facing spending bill gridlock in the Senate, approved a measure Monday designed to keep government agencies in business when the new fiscal year begins in six days.
The bill, backed by the leadership of both parties and the Bush Administration, would keep the government functioning through Oct. 25. The House was expected to approve it today and send it to the Senate.
The legislation is needed because an assortment of disputes has kept Congress from completing work on all but one of the 13 annual spending bills for fiscal 1990, which begins Sunday. Chief among the standoffs is a partisan spat over how much money should be spent on anti-drug programs and how to pay for them.
The House finished work on the last of its money bills Aug. 4, but the Senate has approved just seven of its own. The two chambers need to agree on compromise versions of each measure before they can be offered to President Bush for his signature.
