Us Shutdown A Step Closer As Senate Kills Bill

WASHINGTON: The Senate voted on Friday morning to reject the House's stopgap spending bill, less than twelve hours after the House's Republican leaders had forced it through on their second try.

The Senate vote was 59 to 36 to table the House bill, effectively killing it. Some conservative Republicans joined in rejecting the measure . The House, in the wee hours of Friday morning, had passed its latest version of a stopgap spending bill after rejecting on Wednesday a nearly identical version of the legislation, which is needed to keep the government open after September 30 and to provide assistance to victims of natural disasters. The House vote was 219 to 203. The bill, to finance government operations for seven weeks after start of the fiscal year on October 1, faces problems in the Senate.