Shutdown looms as US Senate, House advance separate spending plans

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. September 25, 2023. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic-led U.S. Senate forged ahead on Thursday with a bipartisan stopgap funding bill aimed at averting a fourth partial government shutdown in a decade, while the House prepared to vote on partisan Republican spending bills with no chance of becoming law.

The divergent paths of the two chambers appeared to increase the odds that federal agencies will run out of money on Sunday, furloughing hundreds of thousands of federal workers and halting a wide range of services from economic data releases to nutrition benefits.