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Compromise on US Federal Budget Likely to Pass

   VOA News  March 01, 2011
   US workers protest to save the middle class

Photo: AP

   US workers protest to save the middle class

   Lawmakers  in  the U.S. House of Representatives are scheduled to vote
   Tuesday  on  a  plan  to temporarily fund the federal government until
   March 18 and avoid a shutdown later this week.

   Negotiators   in  the  Republican-controlled  House  have  reached  an
   agreement  with  the Democratic-led Senate to cut $4 billion from this
   year's  federal budget, some of it from programs that President Barack
   Obama has called for eliminating and the rest from ending the practice
   of  earmarks, whereby lawmakers allocate money for special projects in
   their home districts.

   The   temporary   spending   bill   gives   Congress   and  the  Obama
   administration more time to reach agreement on a spending plan for the
   rest of this fiscal year, which ends on September 30.

   The  House passed legislation last month that cut $61 billion from the
   federal  budget  this  year,  driven  by 87 new Republican congressman