US senate leaders have reached an agreement to reopen the government.
The upper house in Congress vowed to advance a bill financing government which will bring to an end a federal shutdown.
The senate vote was 81-18, well above the 60 votes needed but the senate still must vote on final passage to send the bill to the House.
Democrats ended their delaying tactics against a bill financing federal agencies through February 8.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said, in exchange, majority leader Mitch McConnell has agreed to begin debating immigration by that date.
Sorry, but we won’t be tweeting/responding to replies during the government shutdown. Also, all public NASA activities and events are cancelled or postponed until further notice. We’ll be back as soon as possible! Sorry for the inconvenience.
— NASA (@NASA) January 22, 2018
Mr McConnell says the end to the standoff shows “the American people didn’t understand” why Democrats shut down the government because they wanted to help “illegal immigrants.”
The Senate has started a vote to advance the bill reopening government. It is expected to pass easily, and House approval is expected later.
