Government shutdown live updates: House, Senate approve stop-gap funding bill

The Senate approved the House-passed short-term government funding bill in a just-after-midnight vote by a vote of 85-11.

The legislation will extend government funding until March 14. It provides $100 billion for disaster aid, $30 billion for farmers and a one-year extension of the farm bill.

The gavel technically fell in the Senate at 12:38, meaning that Congress technically missed its midnight deadline to avert a shutdown by 38 minutes.

President Joe Biden still needs to sign the bill, but a shutdown has for all intents and purposes been averted and no real tangible effects of it will be felt in the window between now and Biden's signing of the bill.

Before the vote, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised the work of the Senate in passing this bill.

"Tonight the Senate delivers good news for America: there will be no government shutdown right before Christmas," Schumer said. "After a chaotic few days in the House it's good news that the bipartisan approach in the end prevailed. It is a good lesson for next year: both sides have to work together."

He heralded the legislation as a "good bill".

"It is a good outcome for America and the American people," Schumer said.

The passage of the passage of the short-term funding bill marks the end of the 118th Congress. The Senate will now depart for the holidays, and return on January 3, 2025, when the 119th Congress will be sworn in.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

The Senate is, after several hours of stalled debate, beginning a series of votes that are all but certain to end in the passage of the House-backed short-term continuing resolution.

"I have very good news for my colleagues and the country: Democrats and Republicans have just reached an agreement that will allow us to pass the CR tonight before the midnight deadline," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor.

The Senate was first voting on a series of amendments to the Social Security Fairness Act, a bill that would boost Social Security payments for millions of public service retirees who also receive pensions.

Final passage of the short-term funding was expected to be the last vote Friday evening.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

Ahead of an expected vote late Friday to keep the federal government running, senators voted unanimously to approve some of the funding for pediatric cancer research that was stripped out of the House version of the stopgap funding bill.

Since President-elect Donald Trump helped to torpedo the original bipartisan funding deal in the House, Democrats have decried the fact that a measure to reauthorize National Institutes of Health funding for pediatric cancer had been removed.

But it turns out that a clean version of that bill -- albeit with less money -- has been sitting in the Senate since the House passed it in March.

On Thursday night, without much fanfare and ahead of approving the stopgap funding bill, the Senate unanimously approved the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act 2.0.

The bill reauthorizes a pediatric disease research initiative within NIH through fiscal 2028 and requires the agency to coordinate pediatric research activities to avoid duplicative efforts.

The legislation was led by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.).

Senators were also expected to advance both the government funding bill and the Social Security Fairness Act.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the passage of the government funding bill "a victory" for the American people during remarks after the vote.

"House Democrats have successfully stopped the billionaire Boys Club, which wanted a $4 trillion blank check by suspending the debt ceiling in order to enable them to cut Social Security, cut Medicare and cut nutritional assistance, while providing massive tax breaks for the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected," he said.

Jeffries took no questions.