The United States government narrowly avoided a federal shutdown as both the House and Senate reached an agreement on a short-term funding bill.

A bill to secure funding until November 17 received overwhelming support and was signed into law by President Joe Biden just minutes before the deadline.

However, the bill did not include any new aid for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, a key demand from Democrats.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy submitted the bill, defying hardliners within his own party.

A government shutdown, which would have furloughed tens of thousands of federal employees without pay and suspended various government services, was scheduled to begin at 00:01 ET (04:01 GMT) on Sunday.

In a dramatic turn of events on Saturday afternoon, Mr. McCarthy decided to put the temporary funding measure to a vote, which would keep the government funded, including resources for natural disasters, but without major concessions on spending levels – a key demand of the Republican-controlled lower house.

The majority of lawmakers were eager to prevent a shutdown, and the bill received more support from Democrats than Republicans, with as many as 90 House Republicans voting against it.

This move was a setback for a small group of right-wing Republicans who had been obstructing negotiations in the chamber with their unwavering demands for spending cuts and a refusal to provide new aid to Ukraine.

After the vote, the House adjourned immediately, leaving the Senate, which had passed its own bill that included aid for Ukraine, with no option but to take up the House legislation. Only nine senators voted against it, all of whom were Republicans.

Shortly after the Senate vote, President Joe Biden released a statement accusing "extreme House Republicans" of attempting to create a "manufactured crisis" and urged Speaker McCarthy to allow a funding deal for Ukraine to proceed without delay.

He emphasized, "Under no circumstances can we allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted."

In an unusual move, senior Senate leaders from both parties, including minority leader Mitch McConnell, issued a joint statement indicating their intent to "ensure that the US government continues to provide" support to Ukraine in the coming weeks.

This statement came after Senator Michael Bennet, a Democratic member from Colorado who supports increased funding for Kyiv, protested the lack of guarantees for Ukraine included in the deal.

Congress has approved approximately $113 billion (£92 billion) in military, humanitarian, and economic aid to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion last year. President Biden has requested an additional $24 billion.

What Happens in a US Government Shutdown? Shutdowns occur when both chambers of Congress are unable to reach an agreement on the roughly 30% of federal spending they must approve before the start of each fiscal year on October 1.

With Republicans holding a slim majority in the House and Democrats controlling the Senate by a single seat, any funding measure requires bipartisan support.

Efforts to pass spending bills in the House have been repeatedly thwarted in recent weeks by rebel right-wing members.

This group has opposed short-term spending measures and advocated for enacting long-term spending bills with agency-specific savings, despite the slim likelihood of such bills advancing through the Senate.

Mr. McCarthy had been extremely reluctant to rely on Democratic votes to pass the House's bill until the last minute, as this would have angered conservative members of his party.

This drama is likely to repeat itself in less than seven weeks, as fundamental disagreements over government spending levels and policies between Republicans and Democrats, and within the Republican Party itself, remain unresolved. Photo by JessicaRodriguezRivas, Wikimedia commons.