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US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan will not run for re-election this year, in a big blow to Republicans with mid-term elections looming.

Congress' most powerful lawmaker said he would not stand for another term in his Wisconsin district this November. Republicans already face a tough challenge from Democrats to keep control of the lower chamber.

Mr Ryan joins nearly 30 House Republicans who have announced this year they are retiring outright. Democrats need 23 seats to take over the House.

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- Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg started testifying before Congress on Tuesday as he looks to fend off the possibility of new regulations as a result of the privacy scandal engulfing his social network.

The 33-year-old internet mogul faces tough questioning from a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate’s Commerce and Judiciary committees.

John Thune, chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee, struck an adversarial tone in his opening remarks here.

“In the past, many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have been willing to defer to tech companies’ efforts to regulate themselves. But this may be changing,” he said.

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will strike a contrite tone when he appears before Congress this week, saying that "we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm."

"That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy. We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake," Zuckerberg said in written testimony. "It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it and I'm responsible for what happens here."

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President Donald Trump told congressional leaders on Friday that he would sign the $1.3 trillion spending bill, according to a source familiar with the conversation, averting a government shutdown and ending a panic that briefly gripped official Washington.

Trump stunned even his closest advisors earlier in the day when he tweeted that he was “considering a VETO“ of the bill that Congress had cleared just hours earlier.

Trump’s declaration — citing the spending bill’s lack of full funding for his border wall and attention to undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers — comes as many lawmakers who would have to override his rejection or pass a stopgap funding measure are already on the way out of Washington for a two-week recess.

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The House passed a massive $1.3 trillion spending package on Thursday, sending it onto the Senate, which is expected to act as quickly as it can. Funding for the federal government runs out on Friday night.

House action is one of the final chapters in months of often-chaotic political struggles over the federal budget — partisan squabbles that led to two short government shutdowns. With control of Congress up for grabs in November — and a president who changed position on major issues on a regular basis — there were times when it didn't look like a final deal was possible.

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Congressional leaders have clinched an agreement on a massive $1.3 trillion spending bill that President Donald Trump, for now, appears grudgingly willing to support. Washington has until Friday to act to avoid a government shutdown.

Negotiators finally reached an accord to fund the government through September after abandoning many of the most controversial provisions that lawmakers were trying to include in the must-pass bill, which has yet to be formally unveiled — and is likely the last major piece of legislation the president will sign before the midterm elections. The full text was released Wednesday night.