US President Donald Trump has signed a resolution extending the government funding through 11 December, White House spokesman, Judd Deere, said on Thursday.
⚠️President @realDonaldTrump has signed the Continuing Resolution, funding the government through December 11, 2020.
— Judd Deere (@JuddPDeere45) October 1, 2020
The stopgap measure was cleared by the US Senate overnight and the US House of Representatives last week.
The legislation was passed in the US Senate hours before the annual spending bill was set to expire, which would have left federal agencies without sufficient money to continue operations at fiscal year 2020 levels.
The bill adds $8 billion in nutrition assistance programs, expands a program that provides low-income children with food and permits farm aid to be distributed to farmers impacted by Trump's trade policies.
Pandemic relief funding included in the bill was added before the bill was approved by the US House on September 22.
The measure also extends many programs whose funding is set to expire on September 30 including highway and transit programs, federal flood insurance programs and several health programs, including a provision to prevent Medicaid cuts to hospitals that serve the poor.
The stopgap spending bill is necessary because the GOP-controlled Senate has not taken action on any of the 12 annual spending bills that fund the 30% of the government's budget passed by Congress annually, US News explains.
The last 35-day government shutdown took place between December 2018 and January 2019 and was the longest on record. The shutdown, which furloughed 800,000 government workers, occurred after congressional lawmakers and the White House disagreed over funding for a wall along the US' southern border.
