President Barack Obama on Friday urged the U.S. Congress to take steps soon to fund the federal government in 2016 and raise its nearly exhausted borrowing authority, but acknowledged that Republican political turmoil in Congress will complicate that, Reuters reported.
"I will not sign another shortsighted spending bill," Obama told reporters, warning that a temporary budget patch approved this week by lawmakers presents the risk of a new fiscal crisis before Christmas.
On Wednesday, just hours before a midnight deadline when government agency funds were due to run out, Congress extended current spending levels through Dec. 11. That left only 10 weeks to set a budget for the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, 2016.
That deadline, and the need to raise the government's debt ceiling expected in early November, loom as Republicans struggle to find a successor for House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner.
"I'm sure the speaker's race complicates these negotiations," Obama said.
Boehner said last week he would resign from Congress on Oct. 30 after being challenged repeatedly by hard-line conservatives in his own party. The move triggered an internal battle for his job and other House leadership posts in the Republican-dominated House.