The US House of Representatives passed a federal spending extension on Wednesday looking to avoid a government shutdown and extending the time for negotiations on the new COVID-19 aid package and the 2021 budget, AFP reported on Wednesday.

The resolution was carried in the Democratic-led chamber by a vote of 343 to 67 and is expected to clear the Republican-controlled Senate before a Friday-into-Saturday midnight deadline to prevent a shutdown, it wrote.

This short-term measure will keep the federal agencies operating at current funding levels until December 18.

A shutdown at this stage will only compound the COVID-19 crisis that has pushed the healthcare system to its limits. Long stimulus negotiations have failed to bear any result.

Also read: Democrats say Trump stimulus plan too small to meet pandemic needs

Number two House Democrat Steny Hoyer expressed hope that a deal could be reached but said the stopgap itself was a “recognition of failure.”

“This is something we have to do to keep the government working.

“But we ought not to believe or pretend or represent this is the way we ought to do business. It is not. It is a function of procrastination, a function of failing to come together and making compromises,” Hoyer told colleagues before the vote.

Passing sweeping spending legislation is often difficult in a divided Washington but the process has been particularly complicated this week as leaders of both parties traded barbs over a pandemic relief package.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced a $908 billion measure but the two sides remained at loggerheads as the White House introduced its own proposal that was shot down by Democrats who said it dramatically cuts proposed unemployment benefits.