Senate Passes Stopgap Spending Bill to Avert Shutdown

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill Sept. 23 to discuss his fight with Republican lawmakers over whether funding for victims of natural disasters should be paid for by cuts to other government programs. (AP)

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted Monday night to send a temporary spending bill to the House to avoid a government shutdown, Democrats and Republicans appeared to have reached a final-hour resolution to an impasse over disaster aid.

The vote in the Senate was 79 to 12 to fund the government through Nov. 18, giving the two sides more time to haggle over long-term spending levels. The Senate also approved an even shorter-term spending bill -- funding the government into next week -- by a voice vote to give the House time to reconvene and approve the followup legislation.

The breakthrough came hours after the Federal Emergency Management Agency indicated it had enough money for disaster relief efforts through Friday. That disclosure allowed lawmakers to jettison a $1 billion replenishment that had been included in the measure -- and to crack the gridlock it had caused.

The events assured there would be no interruption in assistance in areas battered by disasters such as Hurricane Irene and last summer's tornados in Joplin, Mo., and also that the government would be able to run normally when the new budget year begins on Saturday.

The agreement also spelled the end to the latest in a string of political standoffs between Democrats and Republicans over deficits, spending and taxes that have rattled financial markets and coincided with polls showing congressional approval ratings at historically low levels.

"This compromise should satisfy Republicans...and it should satisfy Democrats," said Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, who added that Budget Director Jacob Lew had informed him that FEMA did not need any additional funding to meet its needs for the final few days of the budget year.

"It's a win for everyone," Reid declared.

House Speaker John Boehner's office argued that the GOP was never opposed to disaster aid, just the process for approving the aid.

"Senate Democrats have conceded that the spending level in the House-passed bill was the most responsible solution," Boehner spokesman Mike Steel said in a written statement. "If it weren't for House GOP efforts, the American taxpayers would have been on the hook for even more reckless borrowing by Washington Democrats."

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the latest legislation was a "reasonable way to keep the government operational."

But not even the dispute-resolving agreement prevented Democrats from proceeding to a politically charged vote earlier in the evening that was designed to force Republicans to decide whether immediate aid to disaster victims or deficit concerns held a higher priority.

And the rhetoric was far harsher during the day on the Senate floor, when Mary Landrieu, D-La., unleashed an unusually personal attack on House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., saying the weeks-long controversy started when he said, "Before we can provide help we need to find offsets in the budget."

She called that "the Cantor doctrine" and said the controversy "could have been avoided if Cantor had just said, `I'm sorry, but I made a mistake.' But instead of saying that, he doubled down," she said.

Laena Fallon, a spokeswoman for Cantor, responded that the Virginia Republican had "never said the things she alleged, he has only suggested that we ought to provide disaster aid dollars to those who need them in a responsible way -- something that she's voted to block despite the urgent need."

In fact, House Republicans insisted that any new disaster aid for the expiring budget year be offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget, a decision that Democrats seized on in hopes of reshaping the political terrain to their advantage.

Hours earlier, FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Racusen, said the agency had $114 million left in its disaster relief fund, enough to last until Thursday or Friday, the final business day of the current budget year. She said the exact timing would depend on the number of emergency victims who apply for aid, and whether any new disasters occur.

FEMA officials had said previously the funds would run out early this week. That concern prompted the Obama administration a few weeks ago to ask Congress to approve a replenishment to tide the agency over through the Sept. 30 end to the fiscal year.

House Republicans agreed weeks ago to provide $1 billion and include the money in a bill that also provides money for most federal agencies for the first few weeks of the 2012 budget year. At the same time, they insisted on cutting spending elsewhere in the budget by $1.5 billion to prevent the deficit from rising, an amount later raised to $1.6 billion.

That, in turn, produced a quick attack from Senate Democrats, who opposed cuts.

While it was unclear precisely how long FEMA's remaining funds would last, one official said the agency began conserving funds last month as Hurricane Irene approached the U.S. mainland, prioritizing its aid to help individual disaster victims and pay states and local governments for immediate needs such as removing debris and building sand bag barricades.

Funding of $450 million has been put on hold for longer-term needs such as reconstruction of damaged roads, the official said. In addition, the agency has been able to reclaim unused money from past disasters, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing lack of authority to discuss the matter publicly.

Fox News' Chad Pergram and the Associated Press contributed to this report.