Washington (Platts)--1Mar2011/550 pm EST/2250 GMT

The US House of Representatives, in a 335-91 vote, passed Tuesday a spending bill that would avert a government shutdown until March 18.

Congress was up against a deadline to pass some kind of spending bill before the current continuing resolution expires Friday. If lawmakers did not pass a short-term extension before then, most government operations would halt and many federal employees would be furloughed.

The short-term continuing resolution funds most federal programs at 2010 levels, but cuts an additional $4 billion, mostly by cancelling spending funded through earmark requests. Cuts include about $480 million from energy-related programs.

The bill is expected to pass the US Senate later this week.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican, hailed the bill's passage as the first step toward funding the government in advance, rather than paying for federal programs two weeks at a time. "It is high time we start looking forward instead of constantly looking back," he said.

The Senate plans to pass the two-week continuing resolution sometime in the next two days, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Tuesday.

"The sooner we get this short-term funding of the government done, the quicker we can move to a long-term CR," Reid said.

Energy-related cuts include $292 million from DOE's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program, $13 million from the Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability program, $3 million for Nuclear Energy Research and Development activities, $37 million for Fossil Energy Research, $77 million from the DOE Office of Science and $13 million for the National Nuclear Security Administration administrator's office.

Before voting on the resolution, Democrats offered an alterative measure that would have funded the government for two weeks, but also would have eliminated about $40 billion in tax breaks for oil and gas companies. The motion was easily defeated in a 176-249 vote, mainly along party lines.

Funding the government for the rest of fiscal 2011, which ends September 30, will not be as easy as passing the two-week extension, Minority Whip, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said in a briefing Tuesday with reporters.

With Republicans asking for $100 billion in cuts compared with President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget request and Democrats agreeing to $41 billion in cuts, the two parties still are far apart on how to keep the government running, Hoyer said. "The real issue is September 30," he added.

--Keith Chu, keith_chu@platts.com

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