Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took to the Senate floor Friday morning to defend his decision to support a Republican short-term funding bill that will effectively help avoid a government shutdown at the end of the day.

An afternoon vote was expected to clear the way for a Republican-written bill to keep government funding flowing past midnight after the top Senate Democrat said he would not block it.

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The Senate is working to avoid a partial government shutdown with just hours to spare Friday. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer signalled he'd allow Democrats to side with Republicans and allow t

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate on Friday was poised to pass a stopgap spending bill and avert a partial government shutdown, after Democrats backed down in a standoff driven by anger over President Donald Trump's campaign to slash the federal workforce.

Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, said he would vote to end the filibuster, indicating sufficient support among other party members to allow vote on Republican bill.

Schumer’s comments are a change in tune from Wednesday when he said that Democrats would not provide the votes needed to approve the House-passed stopgap funding measure. He argued that the Senate should instead vote on a “clean” bill that would maintain spending levels for 30 days to enable bipartisan negotiations.