Without Democratic votes to break a Senate filibuster, the GOP would not have been able to pass its stopgap spending bill and avert a government shutdown.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives earlier this week passed the measure, which largely leaves spending steady at about $6.75 trillion in the fiscal year that ends September 30. Democrats expressed anger over the bill,

Congress averted a government shutdown Friday just hours before the funding deadline, after the Senate approved a House-passed spending bill that exposed deep rifts within the Democratic Party.