Stopgap Funding Measure Approved

Departing from the confrontational budget politics that twice shut down the government two years ago, Congress easily cleared legislation to keep the government operating after the fiscal year begins. The measure won final approval, 99 to 0, from the Senate. It provides stopgap funding until Oct. 23 while Congress finishes work on full-year appropriations bills. The stopgap was needed because none of the 13 appropriations bills needed to finance the government was signed into law before the new fiscal year began.