Partial shutdown of Homeland Security averted

UPDATE: A partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security has been averted, at least for one more week. As a midnight deadline closed in, the House of Representatives, with a bipartisan vote of 357-60, approved a measure passed earlier Friday evening by the Senate to fund the government agency for seven more days. The bill now goes to the White House, where President Obama is expected to sign it before midnight.

UPDATE (9:20 p.m.): The Senate passed a bill Friday night that will fund the Department of Homeland Security for one week. The bill now goes to the House, where a three-week funding bill was defeated earlier in the evening.

After that earlier vote, the White House announced that President Obama had talked with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. Moments later, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky went to the Senate floor and swiftly gained approval for the seven-day measure.

UPDATE (7:35 p.m.): The Department of Homeland Security has circulated a 46-page contingency plan, which indicates that more than 30,000 employees would face furloughs out of a total agency workforce of 225,000 should a funding measure not make it through Congress tonight.

With a midnight deadline fast approaching, a funding measure for two or three days or perhaps a week is still possible.

OUR EARLIER REPORT (5:47 p.m.): The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted down a short-term measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security late Friday afternoon, just hours before a midnight deadline to avoid a partial shutdown of the agency.

The vote was 224-203 and included more than four-dozen House GOP members who joined Democrats in defeating the bill.

Democrats opposed the measure because it did not fund the department for an entire year, while conservative Republicans voted no because the legislation had been stripped of proposed changes to President Obama’s immigration policy.

“It’s the best solution that we have available to us right now,” said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark. “Nobody wants to shut down the Department of Homeland Security.”

While the Senate waits to add its assent to House-passed bill, it was unclear what Speaker John Boehner and other Republican leaders would propose next.

“There are terrorist attacks all over world and we're talking about closing down Homeland Security. This is like living in world of crazy people,” tweeted Rep. Peter King of New York, a former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee.

Despite the midnight deadline, essential aspects of Homeland Security would remain open and staffed without a funding bill, including airport security checkpoints, immigration enforcement, air marshal responsibilities, and Coast Guard patrols. Of the department's 225,000 employees, an estimated 200,000 would remain at work, either because they are essential or because their pay comes from fees that are unaffected by Congress.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.