US govt to reopen as Obama signs last-minute bill

The bill ended weeks of tension and stalemate between the two parties, which had lurched the federal government into the first partial shutdown in 17 years and pushed the country very close to default.

The debt limit is the total amount of money that the US government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations, which include Social Security and Medicare benefits, military paychecks, interest on the national debt, and others.

The US government reached its statutory debt limit of about $16.7 trillion on May 19. Since then, the Treasury has been using what it termed "extraordinary measures" to raise funds and pay government bills.

The Treasury estimated that it would exhaust those measures on Thursday, with merely 30 billion dollars cash on hand, whereas its daily payments can run to 60 billion.

The deal staved off a default, but is a short-term fix rather than a final, long-term solution. It does not erase the fundamental gaps between the Republicans and Democrats' stances on spending and deficits.

The 2010 healthcare law, commonly known as Obamacare, was kept practically intact under the deal. The Republicans had forced the stalemate by demanding to link the spending measure to changes or delays in Obamacare. However, the party has not given up the battle.

House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday afternoon that they would not block the bipartisan agreement reached in the Senate, but would continue their fight against Obamacare.

"Our drive to stop the train wreck that is the president's healthcare law will continue," he said in a statement.

Some lawmakers argued that Obamacare is unaffordable and unsustainable and called for a repeal, fearing that it could add debt when the country is already around 17 trillion dollars in the red.