Shutdown looms as US Senate, House advance separate spending plans

The US Senate is pushing for a bipartisan stopgap funding bill to prevent a government shutdown, while the House prepares to vote on partisan Republican spending bills. The Senate bill, which would extend federal spending until November 17 and authorize funding for domestic disaster response and aid to Ukraine, has already been rejected by Republicans in the House. The funding fight revolves around a small portion of the overall budget and does not involve cuts to popular benefit programs. The risk of a shutdown remains high as the two chambers take different approaches to funding.