Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday night the Senate has reached an agreement that would prevent the government from shutting down Friday, Oct. 1.
"We are ready to move forward," Schumer said from the Senate floor, The Hill reported Wednesday night. "We have an agreement on the C.R., the continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown and we should be voting on that [Thursday] morning."
The Senate will vote on a continuing resolution would fund the government through Dec. 3.
The federal government's budget is based on a fiscal year rather than a calendar year and runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
He said the agreement with Republican senators came as Democrats accepted amendments that suspend raising the nation's debt ceiling through 2022, something the GOP said they would oppose unless it was stripped from any funding resolution.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said it is now up to the Democrats, who have majorities in both the House and Senate, as well as the White House, to pass the debt ceiling increase on their own, without support from his party.
The country has until about Oct. 18 to increase the limit before going into default, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said the agency has been using financial "tricks" to postpone the date for the ceiling to be raised.
The conflict between the parties in the Senate is being caused by two massive spending bills the Democrats are trying to push through Congress unilaterally, to pass key components of the Democrat agenda, including free college tuition and expanding Medicare.
Several Senate Republicans agreed to support a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, but balk at a concurrent $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill with a large amount of Democrat wish list items that would address climate change among several other new social programs.
The larger plan, which President Joe Biden said will cost most taxpayers "zero" because it would be funded by people with incomes over $400,000 per year paying their "fair share," and ending corporate tax loopholes.
While Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the White House, all 50 Democrats in the Senate must vote for any measure with Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaking vote.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has only a slim majority and needs 218 votes to pass legislation.
If passed by the Senate on Thursday, the resolution would then go back to the House for a vote, and then quickly to Biden's desk for a signature to keep the government open Friday.
"They will send the CR tomorrow," Pelosi told reporters Wednesday.