We begin tonight in Washington, where, with just hours to spare before a midnight deadline. Congress has reached agreement to avert a government shutdown. This afternoon, the House passed a short-term spending bill that provides funding to federal agencies for forty-five days. The measure was later approved by the Senate, and the line of cars waiting outside the Capitol suggested to the media that the vote would be quick.

One Congressman described it as college student waiting till the last minute to cram for an exam. The US House passed a forty-five days extension of keeping the government open. The Senate followed suit after a day of scrambling and compromise. With millions of federal workers from military bases to TSA checkpoints to government medical facilities poised to lose their paychecks when the clock struck midnight, the US House tried to hit the snooze button and agreed to a brief, forty-five days plan to keep the government open. For days, the US House has been gridlocked as House Speaker K.M tried and failed to pass a bill to fund the government with only Republican votes. Today, he agreed to a deal both parties accepted. The plan had no changes to current spending, but also eliminated money to help the Ukraine was effort which some Republicans had opposed paying for and which Democrats said it must be addressed and readded in November. The deal includes billions of dollars in recovery money for areas recently devastated by natural disasters including flood-ravaged Vermont and hurricane victims including Florida. But Speaker M immediately took heat from some conservative Republicans for cutting a deal with Democrats. Just ahead of votes, as Democrats complained about a rushed process, New York Democrat J.B was accused of pulling a firm alarm in a House office building, which House leaders say they’ll investigate. B declined CBSN’s request for an interview and then issued a statement saying he didn’t realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote.