Receive free US politics & policy updates
We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest US politics & policy news every morning.
The US Congress has voted to avert a government shutdown, after lawmakers agreed a last-minute measure that keeps the government funded until mid-November but leaves out billions of dollars of aid for Ukraine.
The Senate voted 88-9 on Saturday night to approve a deal that was brokered earlier in the day by the House of Representatives, with just nine Republicans voting against the bill in the upper chamber.
President Joe Biden is expected to sign the agreement before a midnight deadline, avoiding a shutdown that would have furloughed hundreds of thousands of workers and stopped basic government functions.
The agreement marks a dramatic turnabout in Washington, where just one day earlier a shutdown seemed inevitable.
Earlier on Saturday, the House voted 335-91 on the deal that keeps the government funded at current levels for another 45 days, postponing the risk of a shutdown until mid-November.
All but one Democratic House member joined with the majority of Republicans in supporting the measure, while 90 Republicans broke with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy in opposing the deal.
In a statement released after the Senate vote, President Joe Biden lauded the stop-gap measure for “preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans”. He criticised “extreme” House Republicans who opposed funding.
Biden said US support for Ukraine could not be allowed to lapse, adding that he expected McCarthy to “keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment”.
Ahead of the vote, Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, said he and Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, had agreed to “continue fighting for more economic and security aid for Ukraine”.
While many House Republicans have been wary of providing more support for Kyiv, McConnell has been resolute about the need to back Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
McConnell said on Saturday night that “most Senate Republicans remain committed to helping our friends on the front lines”, adding he was “confident” the Senate would pass “further urgent assistance to Ukraine later this year”.
Saturday’s vote in the House came after days of failed attempts at compromise that cast doubt on McCarthy’s leadership. The scale of Saturday’s rebellion will raise further questions about the strength of McCarthy’s speakership.
Several hardline members of the Republican conference, including Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, have suggested they are preparing to bring a “motion to vacate”, or vote of no confidence, against the Speaker.
“If somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it,” McCarthy told reporters after Saturday’s vote. “There has to be an adult in the room. I am going to govern with what is best for this country.”
A shutdown appeared all but certain late on Friday after 21 Republican rebels voted against a different stop-gap funding measure proposed by McCarthy. House Democrats also voted against the measure because it included steep budget cuts.
But on Saturday McCarthy came back with the new offer to continue funding the government at current levels for another 45 days.
McCarthy explained his rationale after Saturday’s vote, saying members of the Republican conference had been pushing for a shutdown that would have resulted in troops not being paid.
“I don’t want to be a part of that team,” the Speaker said. “I want to be a part of a conservative group that wants to get things done.”
Adding to the drama in the House on Saturday, Democratic congressman from New York Jamaal Bowman appeared to pull a fire alarm in a congressional office building as lawmakers were gathering to vote.
Bowman’s chief of staff later said the congressman “did not realise he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote” and “regrets any confusion”. McCarthy said Bowman’s actions were “serious” and “should not go without punishment”.
Democrats had placed the blame for the shutdown threat on Republicans, given the small but powerful minority of hardliners in the House who hindered several proposed compromise deals in recent days.
A White House official called the House vote on Saturday a “big victory on funding levels and keeping the government open” for Biden, noting that Republicans had “reversed themselves” on their demands for deep spending cuts. The official said they “fully expect” McCarthy to bring forward a separate Ukraine funding bill “shortly”.
