Mike Johnson offers a short-term temporary spending bill

Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, is proposing another short-term temporary spending bill to avert a partial shutdown of the US government at the end of the week.
According to the New York Times, his proposal would extend funding for some government agencies by one week, until March 8, and for others by another two weeks until March 22.
That will depend on how congressional leaders finalize the new bipartisan agreement on six of the 12 annual spending bills. Top lawmakers will have time to debate the remaining six measures and then try to pass separate spending bills before the next government funding deadlines.
That would be a tall order for the House, which is struggling to pass spending legislation amid divisions among Republicans. Any temporary bill "will be part of a larger agreement to finalize a number of appropriations bills, providing ample time for text to be developed and for members to review before a vote," said Athena Lawson, Johnson's spokeswoman.
Congressional leaders had hoped to finalize the plan as early as Wednesday, leaving until Friday midnight for a quick vote in both chambers. "We continue to make very good progress toward an agreement and we are very close to implementing it," Sen. Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said Wednesday morning. He later added: "I hope that the four leaders can reach this agreement very soon so that we can not only avoid a shutdown of the economy on Friday, but also come closer to completing the appropriations process as a whole." The proposal offers glimmers of hope of averting a spending freeze in the near future, but not of breaking the spending impasse that has plagued Congress for months. Republicans leaning toward deep cuts refuse to accept a deal with Democrats. /BGNES