US Congress agrees on spending bill to avoid shutdown

The US government has managed to escape a partial shutdown after Democrats and Republicans agreed on a $1.1 trillion spending bill.

Following days of backroom negotiations on House and Senate spending panels, congressional leaders agreed to the bill to prevent a repeat of the 2013 US government shutdown.

The spending bill will fund all federal government departments, except the Department of Homeland Security, until December 2015.

The two parties have also agreed to attach policy provisions on a range of issues, including measures to roll back environmental regulations, rules for possession of marijuana in the District of Columbia, and changes to financial regulations for banks.

“This bill fulfills our constitutional duty to fund the government, preventing damage from shutdown politics that are bad for the economy, cost jobs and hurt middle class families,” said Maryland Democrat Senator Barbara Mikulski and Kentucky Representative Hal Rogers in a joint statement.

“While not everyone got everything they wanted, such compromises must be made in a divided government. These are the tough choices that we must make to govern responsibly and do what the American people sent us here to do,” the statement read.

In October 2013, the US government ran out of money. It forced 800,000 employees to take an indefinite leave, and another 1.3 million were left without pay.