The Senate passed a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills early Saturday, effectively ending the immediate threat of a partial shutdown of the federal government.

After being sent on by the House of Representatives on Friday, the package easily cleared the upper chamber by a vote of 74 to 24, sending it to President Biden to be signed into law.

Senate approval came after the midnight deadline when funding was due to lapse for a number of federal agencies, but the White House issued a memo early Saturday saying that the Office of Management and Budget had shelved shutdown preparations because there was a high degree of confidence that the legislation would come through, according to the Associated Press.

Biden is expected to sign the package into law on Saturday.

The specter of a shutdown continued to loom late Friday as Senate Democrats and Republicans debated proposed amendments that would have kicked the legislation back down to the House, which had already begun a two-week recess after their earlier approval of the package.

Just before midnight, however, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer signaled that the shutdown would be avoided.

"It's been a very long and difficult day, but we have just reached an agreement to complete the job of funding the government," the New York Democrat said, according to the AP. "It is good for the country that we have reached this bipartisan deal. It wasn't easy, but tonight our persistence has been worth it."

The package includes funding for the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and State.

Another package of about $460 billion in funding, including for the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and the Interior, was approved two weeks ago, again narrowly avoiding a shutdown.

The larger package passed over objections from many Republican lawmakers - particularly in the House - over its cost, priorities and the speed with which it was brought to a vote.