Washington — By Friday, Washington should have a new drop-dead date.

The Senate approved another stopgap budget bill Thursday that would keep the federal government open until April 8. The measure is expected to be signed Friday by President Obama.

The bill would cut $6 billion in federal spending. That makes twice this month that lawmakers from both parties have agreed to slash billions from the budget.

But the bill didn't get Democrats and Republicans any closer to agreeing on a larger deal to fund the government through September, the end of the fiscal year. It just puts three more weeks on the clock.

"Patience is wearing thin on both sides with these stopgaps," said Sen. Charles Schumer, N.Y., the Senate's No. 3 Democrat. "All signs point to this being the last one. Three weeks should be enough to negotiate a final deal." Yet there were reasons to think it would not be.

For one of those three weeks, Congress will be on recess. And the two sides began their key negotiations with an argument - over how they should negotiate.

Schumer said that House Republicans should make the next move, offering a proposal that's closer to what Democrats will accept. Republicans said the opposite.

"I again implore the President and Senate Democrats to give us an offer," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Va., said in a statement.

There was one sign of progress Thursday: Senate Democratic leaders said that White House staff members and aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, held a late-afternoon meeting on Wednesday to talk about the budget.

It is considered the opening round between Democrats-who have tried to use government spending to spur the economy-and tea party-minded Republicans. They think that government spending is holding the economy back, and that the answer is deep cuts.

Democrats and Republicans alike seem determined to avoid a government shutdown: There is a high risk that the public will view that as incompetence. And, when under deadline pressure, both sides have shown that they can agree on billions in reductions. The last short-term measure, passed this month, would cut $4 billion from the budget.

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