The US House of Representatives has passed a short-term funding bill in a bid to avert a government shutdown that looms on Friday, despite a major Republican revolt.
The measure, the first major test for new House Speaker Mike Johnson, was approved by 336 votes to 95.
Up until mid-January, it maintains government agencies operating at their existing expenditure levels.
Before the end of the week, the Senate is anticipated to pass the interim legislation.
Before government financing ends on November 17, President Joe Biden must sign it into law. If he doesn’t, thousands of federal employees might be temporarily laid off without pay as early as next week, and numerous government functions would be abruptly terminated.
Mr Johnson hailed its passage as putting “House Republicans in the best position to fight for conservative policy victories”.
A two-thirds majority was needed for the vote to pass. Ninety-three Republicans voted against the bill on Tuesday night.
The House Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative Republicans who routinely confront party leadership and share similar views, criticised the plan in part because it did not contain the drastic expenditure cuts they desired.
“Republicans must stop negotiating against ourselves over fears of what the Senate may do with the promise ‘roll over today and we’ll fight tomorrow,'” the group said in a statement.
President Biden’s request for more than $100 billion (£80 billion) in spending, including for Israel and Ukraine, is not included in the bill either.
However, House Democrats took Mr. Johnson’s side, arguing that the government must continue to run.
The Democratic leadership declared that it would back the resolution in a statement issued prior to the vote, citing it as “devoid of harmful cuts and free of extreme right-wing policy riders”.
The vote was the new Republican House Speaker’s first significant leadership test.
His atypical two-tiered plan funds some agencies of the government until a deadline in January, such as the Department of Transportation, Veterans Affairs, and the Food and Drug Administration, while funding other agencies through early February.
The purpose of the interim measure is to give legislators more time to write longer-term budget laws.
The continuing resolution proposed by Mr. Johnson is a so-called “clean” bill because it has no additional conditions, policy changes, or expenditure reductions.
The Speaker used the exact same strategy that resulted in the ouster of his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, in October by choosing to ignore the conservative wing of his party and approve a funding bill with Democratic backing.
“We’re not surrendering,” Mr Johnson said after a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday morning, as he referred to their slim 221-213 majority, “but you have to choose fights you can win”.
The new House Speaker is three weeks into the job, but the discontent from some in his party on Tuesday indicated his political honeymoon could be short-lived.
Texas congressman Chip Roy, an influential conservative, told reporters the House Freedom Caucus was “trying to give the speaker a little grace”, but argued that “today’s a mistake, right out of the gate”.
After eight right-wing Republicans voted to remove Mr. McCarthy, the Republican Party has gone through turbulent times for the past two months.
Right-wing congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee accused Mr. McCarthy of “elbowing” him in the back while he was in the congressional hallways, igniting tensions prior to Tuesday’s vote.
Another Republican lawmaker, Matt Gaetz, filed an ethics complaint as a result of the incident.
