Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

So far 43 Democrats have voted - all in favour. It's looking increasingly likely that they will back this.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Democrats right now are holding back, making Republicans commit to the vote before they tip their hand.

Lawmakers are voting on the House floor on the latest spending bill aiming to prevent a government shutdown.

So far, 11 Republicans have voted against the measure. Four Democrats, however, have voted in favour of it.

The current vote tally is 66 in favour and 11 opposed.

A reminder: Yesterday, the House attempted to pass another version of this spending bill and 38 Republicans were opposed. Two Democrats voted in favour of the measure.

Lawmakers in the House are now voting on the third version of a spending bill to avert a government shutdown.

It needs a two-thirds of all members voting in favour for it to pass.

You can watch the vote happening live at the top of this page.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House appropriations committee who has been a leader in budget negotiations, says that her side is preparing to wrap up their arguments.

This means that lawmakers will be voting soon.

To remind you, we're now about six hours away from a government shut down beginning.

Texas Congressman Mark Alford, a Republican, is using a poem as a tactic to urge his colleagues to vote on the spending bill.

"T'was five days before Christmas and all through this house, not a lawmaker was resting, not even their spouse," Alford says.

He goes on: "The CR was stalled, the debates full of heat, while a shutdown shadow loomed over our streets."

Alford continues on with his rhyme. The poem is sparking laughs among several lawmakers on the House floor.

"As we vote on this CR let's keep this in sight, America first and to all a good night," he closes.

Pennsylvania Republican Dan Meuser begins a speech on the House floor by saying that Trump will bring in a "new era" once he takes office next month.

He praises Musk's involvement, crediting him with reducing the number of pages in the bill.

"This bill avoids a government shutdown," Meuser says.

He says the latest deal reflects "the will of the people to carry out an America First agenda".

You can watch the ongoing debate by clicking watch live at the top of this page.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, the top Democratic appropriator in the House, just finished speaking on the House floor where she listed provisions that were removed from the re-vamped spending bill.

She said the bill dropped provisions that would have limited the power of pharmaceutical companies, protected food stamp recipients, supported research into treatments and cures for childhood cancer, along with provisions helping with pandemic preparedness and response programs.

"American policy should be set on behalf of America's workers, not billionaires who cozy up to communist China," she said.

The debate on the House floor has started, with Rep Rosa DeLauro expressing her opposition to the continuing resolution. She is the top Democratic appropriator in the House.

She says lawmakers had previously reached a bipartisan agreement, but billionaire Elon Musk, "is calling the shots in the Republican Party".

Congress has been "thrown into pandemonium" because of Musk, she says.

After Musk and his co-Department of Government Efficiency head Vivek Ramaswamy began criticizing the previous bill online Wednesday, it died hours later.

Image source, US Pool

Lawmakers are filtering into the House of Representatives as they prepare to debate the new proposal to avert a US government shutdown.

You can click watch live at the top of this page to follow along with us.

We've just seen a copy of the scaled down budget deal that lawmakers are expected to vote on shortly.

The 118-page text is titled the "American Relief Act, 2025". You can scan it yourself here, external.

It appears to be an all-in-one bill, unlike the idea of passing a budget deal through multiple smaller bills that was floated on Capitol Hill earlier today.

Notably, this bill removes Donald Trump's wish to raise the debt ceiling. This means the issue of the US defaulting on its loans will come up early in Trump's second term, which begins in January.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer has just sent a note to lawmakers letting them know there will be a vote on the spending bill at 17:00 EST (22:00 GMT).

The House will reconvene about 16:45 to debate the American Relief Act, Emmer said.

Voting will take place from 17:00 to 17:30, he added.

In a final speech marking the end of his time as Senate minority leader, Republican Mitch McConnell issued a warning to his colleagues about a potential government shut down.

“I don’t care to count how many times I’ve reminded our … House counterparts how harmful it is to shut the government down, and how foolish it is to bet your own side won’t take the blame for it,” he said.

"When you try to use normal government function as a bargaining chip, you pay a political price," he added.

McConnell told his colleagues that they had "a choice": "Do nothing, or try to find things you can agree on and do them together".

We've been hearing a House of Representatives vote on spending measures could happen today about 16:00 EST (21:00 GMT).

However, Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna told the BBC that they are still waiting to see which text lawmakers put forward - and it remains unclear if they will be ready to vote by 16:00 EST.

Cai Pigliucci
Reporting from Capitol Hill

I’m parked outside the Democratic Minority Leader of the House Hakeem Jeffries' office. We’re waiting to see what Democrats will do with this new plan. If they decide to support it, then they could be done with this tonight - before the deadline.

I spoke to Republican Congressman Tim Burchett as he passed by who said he’d heard votes will be at 16:00 local time (21:00 GMT), though nothing is official yet. He also said he heard that Democrats are going to vote for it.

When I pressed him about Democrats' plans, he said: “I heard they were, you know, Christmas is around the corner.”

Notably, Burchett wouldn’t say if he was going to vote for it or not.

Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin tells the Washington Post he thinks a bill that doesn't include raising the debt ceiling - as President-elect Donald Trump has said he wanted - is "going to cause a lot of problems".

But another Republican, Senator Cynthia Lummis, disagrees. Also speaking to the Washington Post, she says Trump hasn't indicated that he wanted to "die on this hill" of raising the debt ceiling, and that he will have seen the result last night to a bill that included it.

“If he himself had picked up the phone and made a bunch of calls, the result would have been different,” Lummis says.

This vote will take place in the House of Representatives, not the Senate. So Lummis and Mullin will be watching to see how a possible vote plays out.

So far, we've yet to hear any specifics from the Republican House speaker about how a potential bill has been hashed out.

"I will not telegraph to you the specific details of that yet, because I've got a couple of things I've got to wrap up... I expect that we will be proceeding forward," Mike Johnson told reporters.

"We will meet our obligations for our farmers who need aid, for the disaster victims all over the country and for making sure that military and essential services, and everyone who relies upon the federal government for a paycheque is paid over the holidays," he added.

The House leadership plan is to bring forward the spending bill that failed on the floor yesterday, but to remove the debt limit measure, a lawmaker tells the BBC's US partner, CBS News.

The lawmaker said the goal is to vote on the deal about 16:00 EST (21:00 GMT).

Cai Pigliucci
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Republicans appear to have a new funding deal. This would fund the government through 14 March, and it includes disaster relief aid and more. What it doesn’t do is address the debt ceiling.

We’re now less than 12 hours away from a shutdown. Republicans say they will put this to a vote on the House floor this afternoon. It needs two-thirds majority to pass.

That vote will be crucial in determining how much support they really have on this new deal - and they’ll need Democrats to back it.

President-elect Donald Trump won’t get what he wants with this leaving out the debt ceiling, and that could come back to bite House Speaker Mike Johnson in the new year.

Image source, Reuters

The House Speaker Mike Johnson also tells US media that Republicans have a "unified agreement" to move forward on a spending deal.

On Thursday, 38 Republicans voted against their own party's bill.

So Johnson's comment now would suggest he has got those 38 lawmakers on his side.

It appears that the Republicans have finished their meeting.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has told US media that "we will not have a government shutdown".

He also says there will be a vote on spending measures today.

Stay with us as we wait to see whether this pans out as Johnson is predicting.