WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Congress on Thursday approved a two-week spending bill to avoid a partial federal government shutdown, delaying a potential fight over the proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall until later this month.
By voice vote, both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the continuing resolution that would extend the federal government funding from Dec. 7 to Dec. 21, sending the bill to the White House.
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the legislation before the funding for the Department of Homeland Security and several other government agencies expires at Friday midnight.
The prospect of a partial government shutdown was raised by disagreements among lawmakers over Trump's proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, for which Trump has demanded 5 billion U.S. dollars.
But Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has said that Democrats are only willing to agree to a 1.6-billion-dollar budget to bolster border security instead of building a physical wall.
Trump has threatened to force a partial government shutdown if the Congress does not give him enough funding for the wall.
In the wake of the death of former President George H.W. Bush last week, the U.S. lawmakers agreed to pass a two-week spending bill to delay the government shutdown deadline until Dec. 21.
The U.S. Congress already passed spending bills for five government agencies for the fiscal year 2019, which began on Oct. 1, and it still needs to decide on the funding for seven more agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security.
The federal government has briefly shut down twice this year due to lawmakers' discrepancy on immigration issues.
