Senate passes funding bill to prevent shutdown through US midterms

The US Senate has passed a government funding bill that will prevent a shutdown through the midterm elections. The bill, which passed with a 90-6 vote, will keep the government running at its current funding levels until December 11. This date is more than a month past the midterms, in which Democrats are hoping to regain control of Congress and block President Donald Trump's legislative agenda for the final two years of his presidency.

The bill must still be approved by the House of Representatives. If passed, it will maintain current funding levels, with a few exceptions, and blocks the Trump administration from implementing certain rules, including one that would give senior political appointees a larger role in reviewing federal grants. According to Axios, it also prevents the administration from transferring money from other programs to the Border Patrol and rejects a White House request for $1 billion to begin work on a new class of battleships.

The Senate's bipartisan effort to pass the stopgap spending bill aims to avoid a government shutdown before the November midterms. The bill's passage comes after two shutdowns within the past year and with the political pressure of an approaching election. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who chairs the Appropriations Committee, framed the vote as a lesson learned, stating that putting the possibility of another shutdown off the table should be a priority.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Guardian US, Associated Press, Axios, Live Mint — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.