Congress advances funding bill despite questions of transparency, hits to social services

In a last-minute deal to avoid another government shutdown, negotiators from both parties in Congress agreed on a more than $1 trillion spending bill late Thursday night. The House of Representatives passed the legislation Friday and sent it to the Senate for approval. Some of the many policy riders on the bill have been abandoned, such as restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba, but a handful of controversial measures remain, and concerns over transparency moved some lawmakers to vote no. FSRN’s Alice Ollstein has the details from Capitol Hill.