The District of Columbia narrowly averted shutdown of unessential operations when the Senate passed the district's fiscal 1995 spending measure just hours before Friday's midnight deadline.
The package would allow the district to spend $3.4 billion and to receive an authorized federal payment of $660 million in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
The bill passed only after senators agreed to drop numerous unrelated amendments. Senators had sought to use the appropriations bill as a vehicle to add language on issues ranging from Haiti and crime to removal of baseball's antitrust exemption.
Also included in the bill is the federal government's annual $52 million payment to the district's troubled pension fund,
