Senate approves spending bill minutes before deadline, averting government shutdown

The Senate voted late Friday night to approve a must-pass spending bill, ending the threat of a short-term government shutdown.

The 63-to-36 vote to approve the year-end legislation came less than an hour before the midnight deadline.

Democrats used a standoff over the year-end spending bill to appeal to the working-class white voters they lost to President-elect Donald Trump by threatening a short government shutdown over health-care benefits for coal miners.

Read more at The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/12/09/red-state-democrats-flirt-with-a-brief-government-shutdown-over-coal-miners-healthcare/