New Delhi, Aug. 8 -- WASHINGTON - The Senate voted 90-6 Saturday to pass a short-term spending bill that would keep the federal government funded through December 11, a margin so wide it barely resembles a contested vote. But the bill the House passed for the same purpose runs through December 4, not December 11. Congress left for recess before reconciling the difference.

The measure was built on the framework Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York announced five days earlier. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the committee's ranking Democrat, were the principal architects. Their negotiations prod...