Obama strikes deal with opposition, averts shutdown

The US Senate on Friday concluded a temporary spending deal that would help avert shout-down for the present after leaders of the ruling Democrats and opposition Republicans struck a last-minute budget deal.

A budget deadlock and a government shutdown would have hit the economy and idled hundreds of thousands of workers.

A late night CNN report on Friday said the Democratic and Republican negotiators had reached a budget deal that would avoid a government shutdown.

Under the deal, brokered by Speaker John Boehner, the House will pass short-term spending measures that would make funds available to the government through the middle of next week, when the House expects to enact a budget package.

Democrats and the Republicans are reported to have agreed to a compromise spending cut of about $38 billion for the rest of the fiscal year.

A shutdown would have delayed an already slow US economic recovery, forced lay-offs of some 800,000 federal employees, closed national parks and monuments and even delayed paycheques for US troops on the battlefields.