US may have averted major government shutdown by splitting bill, but partial closure is on
House approval still needed, with a funding lapse expected before lawmakers move to pass the spending package early next week
On Friday, the Senate voted 71-29 to advance the package.
The House, which is out of session this week, will still need to approve the package before it can be signed into law, meaning that there will be at least a brief funding lapse after the current funding expired on Friday.
But the chamber is expected to move on the legislation quickly early next week, minimising the effects of the lapse.
A fuller government cessation again seemed to be on the table when Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, delayed a vote to advance the package on Thursday, a day before the January 30 deadline.
Days earlier, Democrats in the chamber came out against the funding package that would also fund the departments of Treasury, Labour, Health and Human Services and Transportation, among other federal agencies.