Time remains short to avoid the federal government's fourth partial shutdown in a decade, which will begin at 12:01 a.m. ET on Sunday unless the Democratic-majority Senate passes the bill and President Joe Biden signs it into law in time.
The House voted 335-91 to fund the government for another 45 days, with more Democrats than Republicans supporting it.
Some 209 Democrats supported the bill, far more than the 126 Republicans who did so, and Democrats described the result as a win.
Democratic Representative Don Beyer said: “I am relieved that Speaker McCarthy folded and finally allowed a bipartisan vote at the eleventh hour on legislation to stop Republicans’ rush to a disastrous shutdown."
McCarthy’s shift won the support of top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, who previously had backed a similar measure that was moving through the Senate with broad bipartisan support, even though the House version dropped aid for Ukraine.
“I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try,” McCarthy told reporters. “And you know what? If I have to risk my job for standing up for the American public, I will do that.”
The funding fight focuses on a relatively small slice of the $6.4 trillion U.S. budget for this fiscal year. Lawmakers are not considering cuts to popular benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
