The Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass a measure to fund the government past the 30 September deadline on Wednesday morning.
The vote, which passed 78-20, is on a continuing resolution which would extend government funding to 11 December. It now passes to the House of Representatives for an afternoon vote.
Meanwhile, John Boehner, the current speaker of the House who announced on Friday that he would be stepping down at the end of October, told the New York Times on Wednesday that an election to pick his replacement would be held on Thursday 8 October.
Congressional Democrats are relieved that Boehner will still be shepherding the continuing resolution through the House – he has pledged that there will be no government shutdown over this spending bill. But the right wing of the Republican party does not share their enthusiasm for the outgoing speaker and the funding bill, which they object to because it funds Planned Parenthood.
The Senate “no” votes included the Texas senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who spoke angrily on Monday night against the measure, which had the support of the Senate Republican leadership. He told reporters outside the Capitol that it had “abdicated its responsibility to fight for conservative principles”.
Two senators, both of them prospective Republican presidential candidates, did not vote – Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida.
The New York Democratic senator Chuck Schumer told the Guardian that Congress’s reliance on such continuing resolutions, which push government funding down the road by no more than a few months at a time, meant “that Republicans are tied in a knot and incapable of governing”.
On whether things could change, Schumer said: “No.”
“It’s hard to think of a scenario where Boehner’s leaving makes it better,” he added.
