The US House of Representatives has passed a stopgap funding bill with overwhelming Democratic support hours before a government shutdown was set to take effect. 

The federal government’s fourth partial shutdown in a decade, set to begin at 12.01am on Sunday, will now be averted providing the Democratic-majority Senate passes the bill and President Joe Biden signs it into law.

The bill passed the Republican-led House of Representatives after Speaker Kevin McCarthy defied an earlier demand by party hardliners for a partisan approach.

The new approach would leave behind aid to Ukraine — a White House priority opposed by a growing number of GOP lawmakers — but increase federal disaster assistance by $US16 billion ($25 billion), meeting President Biden’s full request. 

Mr McCarthy abandoned party hardliners’ earlier insistence that any bill pass the chamber with only Republican votes, a change that could cause some colleagues to seek to oust him.

The House voted 335-91 to fund the government for another 45 days, with more Democrats than Republicans supporting it.

The move marked a profound shift from earlier in the week, when a shutdown looked all but inevitable.

Democrats call it a win

Some 209 Democrats in the House supported the bill, far more than the 126 Republicans who did so, and Democrats described the result as a win.

“Extreme MAGA Republicans have lost, the American people have won,” top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries told Reuters. 

“I am relieved that Speaker McCarthy folded and finally allowed a bipartisan vote at the eleventh hour on legislation to stop Republicans’ rush to a disastrous shutdown,” Democratic Representative Don Beyer said. 

Mr McCarthy’s shift won the support of top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, who previously had backed a similar measure that was moving through the Senate with broad bipartisan support, even though the House version dropped aid for Ukraine.

“Under these circumstances, I’m recommending a ‘no’ vote, even though I very much want to avoid a government shutdown,” Senator McConnell said.

The two bills are very similar, with the House version providing another 45 days of funding for the federal government — enough to last through mid-November — but not providing additional funds to help Ukraine fight off a Russian invasion.

Mr McCarthy dismissed concerns that hardline Republicans could try to oust him as leader.

“I want to be the adult in the room: go ahead and try,” McCarthy told reporters. “And you know what? If I have to risk my job for standing up for the American public, I will do that.”

Reuters