WASHINGTON (AFP) – A divided House of Representatives approved a stop-gap budget measure Friday that would keep the government operating into fiscal year 2014, but controversially defunds President Barack Obama’s health care law.
Lawmakers voted 230-189, largely along party lines, in support of the so-called continuing resolution that funds government operations at current levels up to December 15.
Many federal agencies and programs will shutter on October 1, day one of the coming fiscal year, if Congress and the president do not agree on a temporary budget measure.
But the Republican bill, in a nod to the party’s more conservative wing, includes a provision that strips funding for the health care law known as Obamacare, virtually assuring that it will not pass the Senate, raising the risk of a government shutdown.
