Washington - The U.S. Congress, with strong support from Democrats and a significant change of stance by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, passed a temporary funding bill late on Saturday. Earlier, hardline members of the Republican party had insisted on a purely partisan bill, but McCarthy abandoned this stance. The Democratic-majority Senate voted 88-9 in favor of the measure, preventing the fourth partial federal government shutdown in the last decade. President Joe Biden promptly signed the bill into law before the 12:01 a.m. ET (0401 GMT) deadline.

This shift by McCarthy was a substantial departure from the situation earlier in the week when a government shutdown seemed almost certain. A shutdown would have meant that most of the government's 4 million employees, whether working or not, would not receive pay, and various federal services, including National Parks and financial regulators, would have closed.

Federal agencies had already made detailed plans outlining which services would continue, such as airport screening and border patrols, and which would cease, including scientific research and nutrition assistance for 7 million underprivileged mothers.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed relief after the vote, emphasizing that bipartisanship was the only solution to avoid a shutdown and commending Speaker McCarthy for heeding this message.

The bill received substantial support from Democrats, with 209 of them backing it, outnumbering the 126 Republicans who did the same. Democrats viewed this outcome as a victory over extreme MAGA Republicans who had pushed for a more partisan approach.

Despite some delays, the bill eventually passed in the Senate, although there were attempts to negotiate further aid for Ukraine. While McCarthy's change in stance gained support, concerns about potential challenges to his leadership by hardline Republicans were dismissed. McCarthy emphasized his commitment to standing up for the American public and stated that House Republicans would proceed with plans for additional funding bills that would include spending cuts and conservative priorities like stricter border controls.

This episode followed closely on the heels of a previous congressional standoff that nearly resulted in a default on the $31.4 trillion U.S. debt, raising concerns on Wall Street about U.S. creditworthiness. Congress typically passes stopgap spending bills to provide additional time for negotiations on detailed funding legislation for federal programs.

In this instance, a group of Republicans had obstructed progress in the House as they sought to tighten immigration policies and reduce spending below the levels agreed upon during the earlier debt-ceiling standoff in the spring. The McCarthy-Biden deal had set a limit of $1.59 trillion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2024, while House Republicans were demanding an additional $120 billion in cuts.

The funding dispute primarily focused on a relatively small portion of the $6.4 trillion U.S. budget for the fiscal year, with no consideration of cuts to popular benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare. President Biden expressed disappointment over the situation, emphasizing that he and Speaker McCarthy had previously reached a budget agreement to prevent such manufactured crises, which House Republicans had attempted to undermine with their demands for drastic cuts.