Senate passes short-term government funding to avert shutdown

The Senate has passed a bill to fund the government through March 11, averting a partial government shutdown that would otherwise occur after midnight Saturday. The bill now goes to President Biden's desk for his signature. 

The final vote was 65 to 27, which included a number of Republicans. The bill, which required 60 votes to pass in the Senate, passed the House last week. 

Republicans who voted against the bill spoke out against what they described as too-large government spending and record-high inflation levels, and three GOP-offered amendments to the continuing resolution failed. 

Lawmakers are still working on a larger omnibus appropriations bill to fund the government through September, the end of the fiscal year. 

"I am pleased that Congress has passed a continuing resolution through March 11, ensuring that the government will remain open as we continue our bipartisan, bicameral negotiations on FY22 bills," Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Richard Shelby, a Republican, said in a statement. "We are making progress under our omnibus framework, but there's still a lot of work to be done.  This will provide us additional time to complete our work. Chairman Leahy, Chair DeLauro, Ranking Member Granger, and I remain steadfast in our commitment to get the job done and fund the government through the end of this fiscal year."

The short-term funding bill allows the government to operate at current funding levels and avoids a partial government shutdown during Mr. Biden's State of the Union address on March 1.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is gauging potential support on Capitol Hill for $30 billion in new federal funding to pay for the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on more money to pay for testing, treatment programs and development of vaccines to fight the virus and future diseases, as CBS News has previously reported.