(181220) -- BEIJING, Dec. 20, 2018 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (L front) receives interviews at Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on Dec. 19, 2018. The U.S. Senate on Wednesday night passed a stopgap funding bill to keep several federal agencies funded until Feb. 8, avoiding a partial government shutdown after Friday. Approved in a voice vote with bipartisan support in the Senate, the legislation is expected to be voted on by the House on Thursday. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate on Wednesday night passed a stopgap funding bill to keep several federal agencies funded until Feb. 8, avoiding a partial government shutdown after Friday.
Approved in a voice vote with bipartisan support in the Senate, the legislation is expected to be voted on by the House on Thursday.
U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet confirmed he will sign the bill into law, but the White House said he will "certainly" look at it.
The bill, proposed earlier in the day by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- a Kentucky Republican -- denied the 5-billion-U.S.-dollar bill that Trump wants for building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The border wall funding has been at the center of a partisan dispute over which the president once vowed to paralyze the government.
A partial government closure, set to happen after Friday if the impasse continues, would disrupt the jobs of over 800,000 federal employees, half of whom might have to work without pay.
The temporary measure will fund border security and other federal agencies at the current level until Feb. 8. Some conservative lawmakers urged Trump to veto it.
