The US Congress votes to avoid a shutdown before the midterm elections.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a temporary measure to fund the federal government until December 4, as Republicans sought to neutralize the sensitive issue before the November midterm elections.

The resolution passed by a vote of 220 to 205, a vote that largely followed party lines. This continuity resolution averts a federal government shutdown, a scenario that House Republican leaders were determined to avoid at all costs as the midterm elections approached.

The matter now moves to the Senate, where the measure will need bipartisan support to pass. The outcome therefore remains uncertain in the upper chamber, where procedural rules generally require agreement beyond just Republican ranks.

By postponing the deadline to early December, elected officials avoid making the budget issue a central theme of the election campaign, preferring to postpone substantive negotiations until after the election.