Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — A stopgap spending bill that’s needed to avert a government shutdown Friday advanced in the Senate as lawmakers prepared to head for the exits for the midterm elections.
The measure easily advanced, 83-15, Tuesday on a procedural vote that puts it on track to pass the Senate today, and the House could clear it for President Barack Obama before the budget year ends Thursday night.
To speed the measure through, lawmakers ignored administration pleas for add-ons such as $1.9 billion for “Race to the Top” grants to better-performing schools and more than $4 billion to finance settlements of long-standing lawsuits by black farmers and American Indians against the government.
