The bill covers discretionary spending, functions like law enforcement and air traffic control, and represents about a quarter of a roughly $6.75 trillion federal budget, which also includes spending for the Social Security retirement program and more than $1 trillion per year on interest payments on the government's growing $36 trillion debt.
It would increase defense spending by about $6 billion while decreasing non-defense spending by about $13 billion, according to House Republican leadership aides. It would also continue a freeze of $20 billion in funding for the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service previously included in a December stopgap bill.
Lawmakers will face a far more serious deadline later this year when they must address their self-imposed debt ceiling, or risk a disastrous default that would rock the world economy.