WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The White House on Wednesday expressed its support for a short-term spending bill proposed by House Republicans, in a bid to avoid a government shutdown by Friday if the U.S. Congress fail to pass a funding bill for the federal government.

"We do support the short-term C.R.. However, it's not our first choice," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders at the daily press briefing on Wednesday.

As a stop-gap measure, the proposed short-term spending bill will fund the U.S. federal government through February 16. It includes a six-year reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program, which Democrats have demanded.

The federal government is running on its third temporary spending bill since the fiscal year of 2018, which began on October 1, 2017 and is set to expire on January 19.

"We'd still like to see a clean funding bill, a two-year budget deal," said Sanders.

U.S. Congress is now discussing a two-year budget deal. However, there still is large gap between Republicans and Democrats over immigration.

Democrats said they won't support any spending bill that does not include protections for young people who were brought to the United States illegally as children and will lose their protected status in March. While Conservative Republicans supported legislation that would cut government spending except for defense.

"The president certainly doesn't want a shutdown. And if one happens, I think you only have one place to look, and that's to the Democrats, who are holding our military and our national security hostage by trying to push through other policies that have nothing to do with the budget," Sanders said at the briefing.