Republicans Start Stopgap Rollout

House Republicans began rolling out Friday a novel stop-gap spending bill that would avert a government shutdown March 4 but only if Democrats first accept nearly $4 billion in appropriations cuts as a down payment toward a larger budget deal…”

“Party leaders, in a conference call with reporters, said the full text of the bill will be released Friday afternoon in anticipation of coming to the House floor Tuesday. Most of the savings would come by rescinding unspent funds that had been earmarked by the last Congress or adopting reductions proposed in the White House’s own 2012 budget.