Democratic and Republican leaders in the US Congress on Wednesday announced they had reached a deal for advancing the 12 annual bills that fund an array of federal programs for the fiscal year ending on September 30, and could also avert government shutdowns on Saturday.
The pact approved by House of Representatives and Senate leaders would pave the way for votes on a stopgap funding bill to keep the government operating normally through newly-set March 8 and March 22 deadlines, giving lawmakers time to examine and debate the full-year funding bills.
The temporary measure will be "voted on by the House and Senate this week," said the joint statement by House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the leaders of the two chambers' appropriations panels.
Republican Representative Kevin Hern told reporters the temporary funding bill, which would be the fourth of the fiscal year that began last October 1, would be put to a House vote on Thursday.
If it were to fail it would bring the federal government to the brink of partial shutdowns early on Saturday.
Both parties' leaders will now work on explaining the deal to their rank-and-file with the goal of convincing enough of them to back the arrangement.
The deal would put six of the 12 funding bills on a path to passage by March 8 with the remainder by March 22.
At least one person was killed and 10 injured, including three children, in overnight drone attacks by Russia on Ukraine, officials said on Wednesday. Various attacks also damaged energy facilities in two regions, according to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Israel announced a major expansion of military operations in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to its security zones, accompanied by large-scale evacuation of population.
A fourth US Army soldier, who together with three others went missing in Lithuania last week when their vehicle sank in a peat bog, has been found dead, US and Lithuanian officials said on Tuesday.
The United Nations on Tuesday dismissed as "ridiculous" an assertion by Israel that there was enough food in the Gaza Strip to last for a long period of time, despite the closure of all 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme (WFP).
United Nations officials who surveyed earthquake damage in Myanmar urged the global community to ramp up aid before the looming monsoon season worsens already catastrophic conditions, with the death toll at 2,719 and expected to surpass 3,000.
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