House lawmakers vote to avoid US government shutdown

With a vote of 329-91, US lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted to avoid a looming government shutdown late Thursday for the next six months. The Senate, where Democrats hold a narrow majority, is expected to approve it before the October 1 deadline, averting a government shutdown at the start of the new fiscal year. Although many Republicans wanted steeper budget cuts, party leaders did not want a rerun of the 2011 showdown that almost brought the government to a standstill. The stopgap measure will fund government through March 27th at levels agreed upon during last summer's debt deal between Congress and the White House. That deal set spending levels for the upcoming fiscal year, and promised nearly USD 1.2 trillion in cuts to be made equally across defense and domestic programs over the next decade, beginning January 3rd.