By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives approved Tuesday legislation that would fund federal agencies until March 11, and prevent a chaos shutdown of Washington operations when the existing funds expire at midnight on February 18.

By a vote of 272-162, the House passed the emergency measure. It will grant Democratic and Republican negotiators an extra three weeks to come up with a plan for a funding bill that covers the full calendar year.

Temporary measure, the third from the beginning of the fiscal year which began Oct. 1, now heads to the Senate. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer promised quick action.

For weeks, negotiators struggled to reach an agreement on the “omnibus” spending bill that would finance federal government wide-ranging activities up to Sept. 30, which is the close of the current fiscal.

Rosa DeLauro, House Appropriations Chair, stated that “omnibus” is the only means to unlock the $1 trillion of infrastructure spending authorized by Congress last year.

This measure will also increase spending for defense and veterans programs as well as environmental education and other domestic initiatives.

Schumer expressed his confidence in the fact that an all-year funding bill for the Department of Education would be in place before March 11.

Senator Richard Shelby was the Senate Appropriations Committee’s senior Republican. He told reporters they were getting close to an agreement on spending on top of this bill. It is possible that this figure will hover at $1.5 trillion.

Republicans demanded that the money be evenly divided between defense-related programs. Democrats in control of Congress, on the other hand, introduced bills to provide slightly more money for non-defense.

Once the overall budget level has been established as the frame of a bill, negotiators can begin to work on resolving disputes about line-items such as border security or environmental programs. They will also resolve perennial conflicts over policies that affect divisive issues like abortion and Internal Revenue Service.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell spoke on the Senate’s floor that “With these basics, a bipartisan arrangement should be achievable.”