A government shutdown was averted after the Senate passed the House funding bill

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate has approved a bipartisan federal expense account early Saturday morning that prevented a government shutdown and marked the end of a chaotic, high-stakes week in Congress.

The bill authorizes continued federal government funding at current levels for three months and provides additional disaster relief and farm assistance.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the measure Friday night by a vote of 366-34, with the support of every Democrat and more than three-quarters of Republicans.

In the Senate, the bill passed 85 to 11 just after midnight. Of the no votes, 10 came from Republicans and one came from Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vt., an independent member who caucuses with Democrats.

The overwhelming support for the temporary funding bill reflects a desire on both sides to avoid a costly shutdown that could threaten the paychecks of hundreds of thousands of federal workers in the days before Christmas.

President Joe Biden plans to sign the final bill on Saturday, the White House said.

“While it does not include everything we sought … President Biden supports moving this legislation forward,” White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said in a statement Friday.

The dramatic votes in both the House and Senate ended several days of chaos on Capitol Hill during which House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., tried and failed to respond to the president-elect’s demands Donald Trump.

Trump and his billionaire campaign donor Elon Muskon Tesla CEO doomed an initial, negotiated funding plan to failure on Wednesday, sharply criticizing its provisions, leaving Republicans scrambling for much of Thursday to find substitute.

Specifically, Trump has insisted that any deal to keep the government open must include a two-year freeze on the U.S. debt limit. The cap is the maximum the federal government can borrow to pay its expenses.

The debt ceiling is a recurring, heated debate in Washington every few years, and one where the minority political party usually has a lot of influence. Trump seems eager to avoid that fight early in his second term.

But allowing the US to borrow more money is a bridge too far for many hardline conservative Republicans.

That much was evident on Thursday billwhich contained clean government funding and raising the debt limit was soundly defeated. Nearly every Democrat was joined by 38 rank-and-file Republicans who voted against it, after theirs the party leader publicly endorsed the deal.

Like Thursday’s failed vote, Friday’s passage — without Trump’s debt limit hike — served as a reminder to the president-elect of how difficult it is to control the notoriously divisive House Republican caucus.