This stopgap funding bill was designed to give Congress and the White House more time to negotiate a long-term spending bill. Passage of a long-term spending bill had been delayed over objections to Republican efforts to preserve Obamcare's key features but give states a limited ability to opt out of some Obamacare mandates...[ZH: that longer-term bill has been agreed with the Democrats]

This type of brinkmanship has become standard operating procedure on Capitol Hill. The drama inevitably ends with a spending bill being crafted behind closed doors by small groups of members and staffers and then rushed to the floor and voted on before most members have a chance to read it. These "omnibus" spending bills are a dereliction of one of Congress's two most important duties — allocating spending.