US Senate passes funding stopgap bill to avert government shut down

The US Senate approved a stopgap bill Thursday to fund the government through mid-December, working to ensure that a shutdown will not occur in the short term.

The bill, passed 72-25, would fund the government through Dec. 16. It now moves to the House of Representatives for a vote ahead of the end of the current US fiscal year which concludes Friday.

The House needs to act by the deadline to ensure the government does not shut down, and Democrats, who retain the majority in the chamber, have signaled that they will work to pass the legislation in short order.

House Republicans are continuing to urge members against voting for the short-term spending legislation but without a majority, efforts are all but certain to fall flat.

"Heading back to DC this week to fund the government and stop Extreme Republicans from shutting it down," Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic Caucus Chairman, tweeted Tuesday.

He said later that the House was poised to act in short order after the Senate took action, according to the Wall Street Journal newspaper.

In addition to funding the government through the midterm elections, the bill would provide Ukraine with $12 billion in additional financial and military assistance.