Government shutdown narrowly averted as Senate backs McCarthy deal with Democrats

The Senate voted overwhelmingly to approve a stopgap bill to fund government operations for the next 45 days with three and a half hours to go until a midnight deadline at the end of fiscal year, ending a days-long standoff which had threatened to paralyse federal agencies and leave millions of workers without paychecks.

The upper chamber approved the measure, known as a continuing resolution, hours after the House of Representatives approved an identical bill put forth by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

It is expected that President Joe Biden will sign the legislation before 12.01 am on Sunday, averting a lapse in appropriations that would have resulted in the entire US government having to shut down non-essential operations.

Mr Biden’s signature will allow lawmakers a brief respite, during which they will have to craft appropriations bills to keep the US government operating for the entire 2024 fiscal year, as well as debate and approve supplemental a spending bill to continue funding Ukraine’s defence against Russia.

The tensions which led to funding impasse, including opposition to funding Ukraine by a small number of Republicans and a desire among a hard-right faction of the GOP to enact sweeping spending cuts, still remain and will undoubtedly cause tensions as lawmakers work on full-year spending bills.

But the last-minute deal, which keeps over a million civilian federal workers and two million uniformed service members from being furloughed or forced to work without pay, is a sign that a strong bipartisan coalition has rejected the demands of the farthest-right reaches of the House Republican Conference.

The beginning of the end of the crisis came about earlier in the day when 335 House members — all but 91 Republicans — voted to advance the GOP-authored spending bill, and after a brief delay when one senator — Michael Bennett of Colorado — expressed reservations about the temporary spending bill’s lack of aid to Ukraine.

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