WASHINGTON — Congress was expected avert a shutdown of the federal government by approving a $1.043 billion “minibus” spending bill Friday that would increase funding for the Securities and Exchange Commission and cut funds for clean and drinking water state revolving funds.
The House voted 296 to 121 to approve the bill, which would continue funding for federal agencies under nine appropriations bills, through Sept. 30, 2012, the end of the fiscal year. The Senate was expected to pass the measure Friday or Saturday.
Sources said that as long as the House approved the bill, that would avert a shutdown at the end of Friday when the latest continuing resolutions is set to expire.
President Obama has said he will sign the measure.
The bill includes $1.3 billion for the SEC, $136 million over last year’s level but $86 million below the president’s budget request.
The legislation also would rescind $25 million from a Dodd-Frank Act-mandated reserve fund for the SEC, which House Republicans charged was “a slush fund for the commission for programs that Congress has not approved.”
The bill would also cut funding for clean and drinking water SRFs, which received $6 billion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
