Published: 16:46, November 17, 2023 | Updated: 16:59, November 17, 2023
Biden signs stopgap spending bill to avert govt shutdown
By Reuters

The White House in Washington, DC, on July 2, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

SAN FRANCISCO - US President Joe Biden signed on Thursday a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown, a day after the Senate passed it, the White House said.

Biden signed the document on the sidelines of a dinner at the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco, where leaders are attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting.

Democrats said they were happy it stuck to spending levels that had been set in a May agreement with Biden and did not include poison-pill provisions on abortion and other hot-button social issues

The Senate's 87-11 vote on Wednesday marked the end of this year's third fiscal standoff in Congress that saw lawmakers bring Washington to the brink of defaulting on its more than $31 trillion in debt this spring and twice within days of a partial shutdown that would have interrupted pay for about 4 million federal workers.

READ MORE: US House passes spending bill to avert government shutdown

US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson had produced the stopgap funding bill that drew broad bipartisan support, a rarity in modern US politics. Democrats said they were happy it stuck to spending levels that had been set in a May agreement with Biden and did not include poison-pill provisions on abortion and other hot-button social issues.