U.S. Passes Bill to Avoid Government Shutdown

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a temporary spending bill Friday that will avoid a government shutdown and will keep things running until the end of October.

The bill, which will give lawmakers more time to craft spending bills for the next year, must now be passed in the Senate by October 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year reports Reuters. The bill passed by a vote of 217 to 190 and will "prevent highway programs from expiring and allow the Postal Service to cover a budget shortfall by reducing the amount it must pay to its retirement account by $4 billion," says the report. The bill prohibits any government money from going to ACORN which came under fire after a conservative activist secretly filmed ACORN employees giving tax advice to a couple who said they wanted to set up a brothel. Wages for government staffers will also be given a boost under the new bill which is angering Republicans as they feel that this issue should be addressed in a separate bill says Reuters. It would also give a boost to veterans' medical care and Census operations. If the government were to shut down it would not be the first time. In 1995 and 1996 it was shut down due to a spending dispute between Democratic President Bill Clinton and a Republican controlled Congress.