Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took heavy criticism from fellow Democrats for allowing GOP measure to proceed, calling it the better of two bad options.

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.

The Senate passed a bill Friday that will fund the government through September and avert a shutdown. Some Democratic lawmakers had wanted to use a shutdown threat to curtail President Trump's mass firing of federal workers.