The House of Representatives passed a two-week stopgap spending measure, cutting (against Democratic objections) $4 billion in spending but—assuming passage of an identical measure in the Senate—averting a government shutdown until March 18. The White House had proposed a 30-day extension with $8 billion in cuts in the hopes of creating some breathing room for budget negotiations; Republicans, eager as always to prove their intractability, preferred the two-week extension as a way to keep pressure on the Democrats to accept their budget, which cuts $61 billion in spending. Today's measure passed 335 to 91, with a majority of both parties voting "yea"; "some Republicans," according to the Times, voted against today's spending measure because it didn't defund the Affordable Health Care Act. Your government in action, folks!