US Senate passes funding bill in bid to end shutdown

The US Senate passed a critical stopgap spending bill early Friday as congressional leaders scrambled to minimize the effects of a government shutdown that began after an hours-long delay forced Congress to miss a midnight deadline.The bipartisan measure, which passed 71 to 28 in the dead of night, was now headed to the House of Representatives for what is expected to be another pre-dawn Friday vote.If it passes the House, and President Donald Trump signs the bill into law, it would restrict the nation’s second government shutdown in three weeks to just a matter of hours.Federal operations were brought to a halt early Friday after Senator Rand Paul, a conservative in Trump’s own Republican Party, blocked a vote on a spending deal before a midnight deadline for extending government funding.Trump’s administration was already preparing for a halt in operations.The White House’s Office of Management and Budget “is currently preparing for a lapse in appropriations,” an OMB official said on condition of anonymity late Thursday, calling on lawmakers to get the measure to Trump’s desk “without delay.”The bill, which includes a far-reaching deal that increases spending limits for the next two years and raises the federal debt ceiling until March 2019, would break the cycle of government funding crises in time for what is set to be a bruising campaign for November’s mid-term elections.The rebellion that simmered among Republicans and Democrats over the budget agreement boiled over when a determined Paul brought the Senate’s work to a halt.

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