The Pennsylvania state House of Representatives has passed a short-term spending bill that Gov. Tom Wolf has vowed to veto without an agreement on a plan to end a nearly three-month budget stalemate.
Thursday's 117-83 vote on the Republican majority's short-term spending plan comes amid intermittent closed-door negotiations that haven't produced much, if any, progress.
The $11 billion plan amounts to four months of funding, retroactive to the July 1 start of the fiscal year. Republicans say the measure also would release $24 billion in federal funds.
Republicans say schools and social services organizations desperately need the money as negotiations drag on. Democrats are standing by Wolf. They say Republicans continue to shortchange aid to education and human services and they're wasting time while refusing to budge in negotiations.
