Senate passes two-year cross-party budget bill

The US Senate has passed a two-year federal budget bill by 64 votes to 36 in a rare outbreak of fiscal deal-making on Capitol Hill.

The legislation, which would avert a government shutdown in January, sailed through the Republican-held House of Representatives last week.

The proposal was drafted by a cross-party budget committee set up after October's 16-day government shutdown.

Republicans and Democrats are unpopular after a year of congressional inaction.

The year 2013 has seen political gridlock over President Barack Obama's healthcare law, the federal debt limit and issues ranging from immigration to gun control.

The budget bill must still be signed into law by the president.

Congress will then have until 15 January to pass a $1.012 trillion fiscal spending bill for 2014.

Democratic Senator Patty Murray, co-writer of the legislation, said: "This bipartisan bill takes the first steps toward rebuilding our broken budget process.

"We've spent far too long here scrambling to fix artificial crises instead of working together to solve the big problems we all know we need to address."

But any hopes that a new era of cross-party unity could be dawning on Washington DC may be premature.

"This is a budget," Democratic Senator Carl Levin told reporters on Tuesday. "A budget could be amended next year. Nothing is written in stone around here."