3 days from shutdown, Senate passes stopgap bill

9/27/13
 
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from USAToday,
9/27/13:

The question is what House Republicans will do.

The Senate approved 54-44 Friday a stopgap spending bill through mid-November to head off a government shutdown in three days, but the legislation inflamed Republicans because it stripped out a provision to defund President Obama’s health care law.

The vote sets Congress up for a rare weekend battle to resolve the impasse before Tuesday, or face the first shutdown in 17 years. Senate conservatives pledged to keep up their efforts to dismantle the law. “This vote is not the end. It’s not even the beginning of the end,” said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he will not accept a “clean” funding bill and intends to amend it and send it back to the Senate by Monday. However, House Republicans are unsure how, exactly, to respond. The House adjourned Friday but is scheduled to be in session over the weekend. House Republicans will huddle Saturday afternoon to determine their next moves.

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