The House passed a US$1.2 trillion government funding bill hours before a midnight Friday partial government shutdown deadline, rebuffing Republican hardliners’ demands for deep cuts to domestic spending.

The 286 to 134 vote Friday sends the bill to the Senate, where leaders in both parties hope to hold a vote in time to avoid a funding lapse. If the Senate debate drags on past midnight, the White House budget office has some limited leeway to delay a shutdown order on Saturday.

The funding package, negotiated by the White House and congressional leaders from both parties, increases defense appropriations by 3% while keeping overall domestic spending flat. Military troops get a 5.2% pay raise, and there are increases in child care, cancer research and primary school funding prioritised by Democrats.

House Democrats overwhelmingly supported the measure while conservatives largely voted against it. Republicans had sought a 22% cut in domestic spending, new limits on abortion and restrictions on migration.

“It’s clear that the Democrats own the speaker’s gavel,” ultraconservative Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, complained.

The package funds three-quarters of federal agencies, including the Homeland Security Department, until the Sept 30 end of the federal fiscal year. Congress already funded the other agencies for the remainder of the year.

Wrangling over Homeland Security provisions in the measure delayed release of the funding deal until after 2am on Thursday.

Democrats made concessions including accepting a ban on providing US funds to the UN aid agency operating in the Palestinian territories. Social conservatives won a prohibition on flying the LGBTQ Pride flag at embassies.

“We should never make the perfect the enemy of the good,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said.

But Republicans were forced to accept earmarks for LGBTQ-related projects and US$200 million in funds for a new FBI headquarters in Maryland.

Some hardline conservatives bitterly denounced Speaker Mike Johnson’s handling of negotiations on the spending package. But there was little sign they would mount an effort to overthrow him as leader of the fractious party, a step a rump group took last year against his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy.

“The problem is you have to find someone else willing to do the job of speaker,” said South Carolina Republican Ralph Norman.

Senate conservatives could use procedural maneuvers to delay a vote and force a brief weekend government shutdown. But Senate Republican leaders, who back the bill, said they hope to avoid that.

  - Bloomberg