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• US House votes to avert government shutdown

Here's the latest state of play as the clock ticks down to midnight:

• The Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats, is debating whether to approve a budget deal passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives hours earlier
• Senator Chuck Schumer has just said lawmakers have reached an agreement that "will allow us to vote on the [spending bill] before the midnight deadline".

• The House's budget agreement succeeded after two previous bills failed amid criticism from President-elect Trump and billionaire Elon Musk

• The slimmed-down bill does not raise the debt ceiling, as Trump had requested, and will keep the government funded for several months - meaning another budget stand off will come in the new year
• The bill now must be still passed by the US Senate
• Once the Senate passes the bill, it will head to President Joe Biden for his signature
• The White House has said Biden supports the bill

For now, the Senate is still expected to vote by midnight on the bill passed by the House earlier on Friday.

Still, it is very possible that if it is passed by the Senate, Biden may not have time to approve it before that swiftly-approaching deadline.

This would be a scenario similar to what played out last March.

Then the government technically closed for a few hours early on Saturday morning before Biden signed a budget agreement into law.

Disruptions were not widespread at the time, but some delays were reported at airports.

Even as the House of Representatives managed to pass a budget deal, it still needs to be approved by the Senate in order to prevent a shut down.

For bills to be made into law, they have to be approved by both houses of Congress, and then signed by the president.

Joe Biden, who will leave the White House on 20 January, supports the legislation, the White House said in a statement earlier tonight.

And to remind you, the Democrats hold a very slim majority in the Senate and it takes only one senator to object and slow the process. We have about two hours until funding expires and the US government will begin to shut down.

Image source, Getty Images

We're in for a delay.

The spending bill that could prevent a government shutdown - which is set to begin in three hours - is in the hands of the Senate.

The chamber appears to have the numbers to approve the bill, but it takes only one senator to delay things. That lawmaker may be Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican.

An outspoken fiscal hawk, Paul took to the Senate floor just now to oppose the bill because it includes spending that he says will put the US further into debt.

Paul argues the US should set priorities and decide whether it can afford to fund Ukraine or issues at home, and not choose to fund everything.

He says he will offer amendments to the legislation, which will then have to be debated on the Senate floor.

That will cause a delay, although we're not sure for how long.

Earlier this evening, Paul offered some amendments to disaster aid legislation, specifically to tackle concerns he had that wealthy individuals could take advantage to a government insurance program. The attempts were immediately shot down.

Here's where things stand, with just a little more than three hours to go until the US federal government begins to shut down.

• The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives passed a budget deal to keep the government from closing down starting just after midnight on Friday
• The budget agreement succeeded after two previous bills failed amid criticism from Trump and Musk
• The slimmed-down bill does not raise the debt ceiling, as Trump had requested, and will keep the government funded for several months - meaning another budget stand off will come in the new year
• The bill now must be passed by the US Senate but it is unclear when the chamber might vote. It takes only one senator to object and delay the measure
• Once the Senate passes the bill, it will head to President Joe Biden for his signature

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has spoken to media about the spending bill that his fellow Democrats voted in favour of.

He says they "successfully stopped the billionaire boys club, which wanted a $4 trillion blank cheque by suspending the debt ceiling".

Jeffries called the vote a victory for the American people, but said there's still work ahead and they "look forward to that fight in the New Year".

While we wait for word from the Senator floor, where the spending bill could soon be voted on, let's rewind to a memorable moment from earlier in the day.

Before House members voted, Republican lawmaker Mark Alford had a few words to say - and they all rhymed.

He started: "'twas five days before Christmas and all through this house, not a lawmaker was resting, not even their spouse".

If you want to listen to the rest of his poem, click play on the video above.

Only Republicans voted against the spending bill on the House floor on Friday Night, which passed 366 to 34.

Congressman Chip Roy of Texas was one of them.

"While this bill was a marked improvement on the 1,547 page 'cramnibus' that was released earlier this week, it still included $110 billion in supplemental funding with no offsets or pay-fors, which I cannot support," he wrote in a post on X.

Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett voted no, he said in a video posted to social media.

He questioned why Democrats voted in support of the legislation when they did the opposite 24 hours earlier.

"I just feel like we got played. It just doesn't make any sense with them trashing it and then all voting for it," he said.

Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona also voted it down.

"I voted against continuing to bankrupt our future generations," he wrote in a post on X.

Mike Wendling
Reporting from Phoenix

Here in Phoenix, one of the country’s biggest conservative organisations, Turning Point USA, is throwing a party.

There’s not a whole lot of talk about what’s going on in Congress here – it’s more of a festive pre-Christmas celebration of all things Maga and Donald Trump. Turning Point has a large grassroots activist arm and during the campaign put together a huge voter turnout effort.

There’s been a stream of Republican politicians, activists and influencers taking to the stage to address a crowd of thousands.

However, one of the names scratched off the list today was the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. It turns out he had some more pressing business to attend to in Washington.

It’s probably for the best – there’s not a whole lot of enthusiasm for the deal. The Maga faithful want Trump’s agenda enacted in full, no compromises, no excuses.

Typical of the reaction was Michael Flynn, a general who briefly served in Trump’s first administration, who poured scorn on what he called a “Johnson-Jeffries” deal – influenced, he says, too much by the Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries.

But overall there’s not overwhelming angst over the deal – instead attendees here are salivating at the prospect of taking power next month.

The White House just released a statement, blaming Republicans for playing political games but noting the president supports the measure.

"Following an order by President-elect Trump, yesterday Republicans walked away from a bipartisan deal and threatened to shut down the government at the 11th hour in order to pave the way to provide tax breaks for billionaires," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in the statement.

"This revised legislation does not do that."

She adds that the newest draft of the bill does not contain all of the provisions Democrats wanted, but that it does contain funding for communities effected by natural disasters, "eliminates the accelerated pathway to a tax cut for billionaires, and would ensure that the government can continue to operate at full capacity".

She ends by saying that President Joe Biden supports the bill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, the chamber's top Republican, is speaking to reporters after the House passed the third version of a revamped spending bill to prevent a government shutdown.

Johnson called the bill "America-first legislation" that sets Republicans up to deliver for the American people next year.

The Louisianan Republican said he spoke with Trump throughout this process, most recently about 45 minutes ago.

"I think he certainly is happy about this outcome as well," Johnson said.

The speaker also added that he spoke with tech billionaire Elon Musk about an hour ago and said the two discussed the challenges that come with being the House speaker.

"We are excited about this outcome tonight. We are grateful that everyone stood together to do the right thing and having gotten this done now as the last order of business for the year, we are set up for a big and important new start in January," Johnson said.

The only votes against the spending bill tonight were cast by Republicans.

A total of 34 Republicans voted against the short-term funding bill.

During a vote yesterday on a different version of the bill, 38 Republicans voted against the measure and joined nearly every Democrat to sink it.

No Democrat voted against the bill tonight.

A preview of tense legislative battles in store for Trump next yearpublished at 23:09 Greenwich Mean Time 20 December 2024

23:09 GMT 20 December 2024

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

It’s not exactly a Christmas miracle, but the House of Representatives, after two days of government-shutdown brinksmanship, approved a bill that will keep the US government operating into the new year.

In the end, more than enough Democrats joined most Republicans to clear the two-thirds majority necessary to fast-track approval for the budget bill. Gone was the debt-limit provision that Donald Trump demanded, which was a sticking point for Democrats and some Republican budget hawks.

Now, the bill moves on to the Senate. Individual senators could slow down the process, but there is more than enough support in the chamber to send the bill to Joe Biden for his signature.

While this two-day fight was avoidable, it also served as a preview of the tense legislative fights that are in store next year, once Donald Trump is in the White House and begins trying to enact his legislative agenda.

With several dozen Republicans opposing the president-elect on this vote, it seems likely that he will be hard-pressed in getting his party – particularly in the House of Representatives – to march in lockstep behind him.

The spending bill now heads to the Senate where it will need to pass before moving to the White House.

It is likely to move through in the Senate given Democrats' decision to back it in the House. But a reminder that it just takes one senator to object to it and that could hold things up.

Already, Sen Rand Paul - a Kentucky Republican - has voiced his opposition and asked for a number of changes to the bill, which were all denied.

If it passes the Senate tonight, the bill will then head to President Joe Biden's desk to be signed into law.

There are about six more hours until the government is set to shutdown.

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill to fund the government, a key step toward averting a midnight government shutdown.

The final vote was 366 in favour, 34 opposed and one lawmaker voting present.

As the House gavelled in to read the vote, lawmakers cheered on the floor.

The bill must still pass in the Senate and be signed off by President Joe Biden.

The 15-minute vote timer has ticked down to zero, but we are still waiting for votes to come in.

It appears the spending bill has enough support to pass, but lawmakers are able to change their votes up until the gavel sounds.

The count won't be official until it's gavelled in.

Elon Musk has just weighed in on the latest state-of-play.

Just before voting began in the House, the billionaire Trump ally praised Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. This came after Musk and other conservatives criticised the top-ranking Republican for his role in crafting a first draft of the budget deal.

Musk, and later Trump, complained that the first draft of the budget deal was full of gifts to Democrats.

"The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances," Musk posted on X about 15 minutes ago.

"It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces. Ball should now be in the Dem court."

Before voting began, Democrats slammed their Republican colleagues for obeying Musk, who they referred to as an unelected president.

On Fox News, the pundits are saying that Musk may have handed a lifeline to Johnson, after several Republicans said they would vote against his speakership in the next Congress, due to start in January.

Fox hosts are speculating that Democrats may cast votes for Johnson, crossing party lines, similar to what we're seeing with tonight's vote.

House lawmakers are still voting on a measure to fund the US government and prevent a shutdown in a few hours.

The current vote tally looks promising that it will pass the House. Currently, there are 304 votes in favour and 30 in opposition.

The only votes against the measure have been cast by Republicans.

The measure needs two-thirds of the 435-member body to vote in favour for it to pass.

If the House passes the bill, it will head to the US Senate for approval.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

So far 26 Republicans (and counting) are voting no - more than enough to sink this if it were an up-and-down vote that Democrats opposed.

And this was a fairly non-controversial bill that just keeps the government running for less than three months.

Definite storm clouds for Trump.

Every Democrat so far has voted yes (96).

With voting ongoing, at least 58 Democrats have voted so far in favour of the bill.

That's way more than the two Democrats who broke across party lines to vote with Republican on Thursday.

Also, so far none of the Democrats who have cast their votes so far have voted "nay" to the bill.

The current vote tally is 178 in favour and 21 against.

All 21 votes opposed to the bill were cast by Republicans.