The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday is expected to debate legislation funding federal government programs through March 11, and avoid a politically embarrassing partial government shutdown when existing funds expire on Feb. 18.

The move would give Democratic and Republican negotiators more time to work out funding for the remainder of the fiscal year that ends on Sept. 30, House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro said in a statement on Monday.

If approved by Congress, this would be the third such temporary funding measure since the fiscal year that began last Oct. 1.

House passage would send the bill to the Senate, which would attempt to approve it and send along to Democratic President Joe Biden for signing into law before the midnight Feb. 18 deadline. The effort will take bipartisan cooperation in the Senate, where at least 60 votes are needed to advance most legislation and Democrats control only 50 seats in the 100-member chamber.

The Internal Revenue Service already has a lot of personal information about American taxpayers: how much we earn, how much we pay in taxes, our Social Security numbers and addresses. But should it also have photos of our faces on file? The agency is now requiring that some taxpayers who want to get certain kinds of tax information submit a photo, and privacy advocates are raising alarms.

First of all, to be clear: The IRS is not requiring that every taxpayer filing a return submit a selfie. It will be used only to verify the identification of people who want to set up an account with the IRS in order to see their past returns or to get information about child tax credit payments.

Still, it’s an overreach, says Emily Tucker, director of the Center on Privacy and Technology at the Georgetown Law School.

Inflation soared over the past year at its highest rate in four decades, hammering American consumers, wiping out pay raises and reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s decision to begin raising borrowing rates across the economy.

The Labor Department said Thursday that consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month compared with a year earlier, the steepest year-over-year increase since February 1982.

When measured from December to January, inflation was 0.6%, the same as the previous month and more than economists had expected. Prices rose 0.7% from October to November and 0.9% from September to October.

Shortages of supplies and workers, heavy doses of federal aid, ultra-low interest rates and robust consumer spending combined to send inflation leaping in the past year. And there are few signs that it will slow significantly anytime soon.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday is expected to debate legislation funding federal government programs through March 11, and avoid a politically embarrassing partial government shutdown when existing funds expire on Feb. 18.

The move would give Democratic and Republican negotiators more time to work out funding for the remainder of the fiscal year that ends on Sept. 30, House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro said in a statement on Monday.

If approved by Congress, this would be the third such temporary funding measure since the fiscal year that began last Oct. 1.

House passage would send the bill to the Senate, which would attempt to approve it and send along to Democratic President Joe Biden for signing into law before the midnight Feb. 18 deadline. The effort will take bipartisan cooperation in the Senate, where at least 60 votes are needed to advance most legislation and Democrats control only 50 seats in the 100-member chamber.

The Internal Revenue Service already has a lot of personal information about American taxpayers: how much we earn, how much we pay in taxes, our Social Security numbers and addresses. But should it also have photos of our faces on file? The agency is now requiring that some taxpayers who want to get certain kinds of tax information submit a photo, and privacy advocates are raising alarms.

First of all, to be clear: The IRS is not requiring that every taxpayer filing a return submit a selfie. It will be used only to verify the identification of people who want to set up an account with the IRS in order to see their past returns or to get information about child tax credit payments.

Still, it’s an overreach, says Emily Tucker, director of the Center on Privacy and Technology at the Georgetown Law School.

Inflation soared over the past year at its highest rate in four decades, hammering American consumers, wiping out pay raises and reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s decision to begin raising borrowing rates across the economy.

The Labor Department said Thursday that consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month compared with a year earlier, the steepest year-over-year increase since February 1982.

When measured from December to January, inflation was 0.6%, the same as the previous month and more than economists had expected. Prices rose 0.7% from October to November and 0.9% from September to October.

Shortages of supplies and workers, heavy doses of federal aid, ultra-low interest rates and robust consumer spending combined to send inflation leaping in the past year. And there are few signs that it will slow significantly anytime soon.