1st LD Writethru: U.S. Senate votes to end gov't shutdown, bill goes to House

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate on Monday passed a three-week funding bill to reopen the federal government after a three-day shutdown, sending it to the House of Representatives for a final vote.

The Senate passed the bill to extend the government funding through Feb. 8 with a vote of 81-18, after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer reached a deal over government spending and immigration.

"After several discussions, offers and counteroffers, the Republican leader and I have come to an arrangement. We will vote today to reopen the government to continue negotiating a global agreement," Schumer said on the Senate floor Monday morning.

The House is expected to approve the three-week funding bill later in the day and send it to President Donald Trump for his signature, allowing the government to completely reopen on Tuesday.

"As soon as the Senate voted to reopen the government, the President continued conversations on the next steps on responsible immigration reform," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday in a statement.

"We will work with Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate committed to fixing our broken immigration system," she said.

The current government funding expired on Friday midnight as the Senate failed to advance a stopgap spending bill, which had passed the House of Representatives and would fund the government through Feb. 16.

The shutdown, the first since 2013, cast a shadow over the first anniversary of Trump's presidential inauguration on Saturday and forced him to cancel a planned weekend trip to his Mar-a-Lago resort in the state of Florida. Enditem