Senate passes two-week spending bill

The Senate passed Republicans' two-week spending stopgap on Wednesday by a vote of 91-9.

The funding measure, which cleared the House on Tuesday, would cut $4 billion in government spending and prevent a shutdown when the current funding bill expires on Friday.

"We can avoid that shutdown and still recognize that there are costs that need to be cut from the government spending," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a floor speech Wednesday morning before the bill passed.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also hailed the spending measure as a step in the right direction. 

"The $4 billion cut in the current fiscal year is a small step, but it is indeed a step in the right direction,” said McConnell. “This is a long-awaited acknowledgement by Democrats in Congress that we have a spending problem around here.”

Not everyone was so pleased. 

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) was one of only five Republicans to oppose the measure because, he said, it did not cut enough.

"The proposal is a disappointing failure on the part of both parties to seriously address the economic meltdown we face from our massive deficit and growing national debt," Lee said in a statement.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also delivered a long speech on the Senate floor in which he accused Republicans of attempting to "balance the budget on the backs of the poor, the elderly and the sick."

The measure will now be sent to the White House for President Obama’s signature.

Senators who voted against the measure were Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho) Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Sanders (I-Vt.).