House taking up stopgap GOP spending bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans controlling the House are moving quickly to pass stopgap legislation to avoid a partial shutdown of the government when temporary funding runs out Friday.

Today's measure would keep the government running for two weeks to buy time for the Republican House, the Democratic Senate and the Obama White House to try to reach agreement on longer-term legislation to fund the government through the end of the budget year.

It's a relatively mild volley in a party-defining spending battle that promises to go on for months or years.

Republicans want to slash a whopping $60 billion-plus from agency budgets over the coming months as a down payment on larger cuts later in the year, but are settling for just $4 billion in especially easy cuts as the price for the two-week stopgap bill.

Negotiations over a longer-term solution are likely to be very difficult as House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, seeks to satisfy his 87-member freshman class — many of whom were elected with tea party support — but still manage to reach a deal with Democrats controlling the Senate and the White House.