WASHINGTON  – The House has approved a stopgap spending measure to avoid a shutdown for 11 Cabinet-level departments whose budgets won’t be enacted by a midnight Saturday deadline.

The measure would give Congress until Dec. 18 to finish seven incomplete spending measures that were supposed to be wrapped up by Sept. 30. The bill passed by a 247-178 vote and now goes to the Senate, which must pass it this week to avoid a partial shutdown.

The legislation, among other things, extends highway programs and federal loan guarantees for larger mortgages. The anti-shutdown measure was attached to a remarkably generous spending bill for the Interior Department and environmental programs. Lawmakers are pumping billion of dollars into clean and safe-drinking water projects.