The House of Rrepresentatives passed a Republican plan to allow the federal govermentto keep borrowing money through mid-May, clearing it for fast enactment after the top Senate Democrat and White House endorsed it. 

The vote in the Republican-controlled House was 285-144, with no votes coming from 33 Republicans and 111 Democrats.

The measure avoids for the time being a repeat of the 2011 debt ceiling standoff that rattled markets and resulted in a downgrade of the government’s triple-A credit rating. The Treasury is expected to exhaust remaining capacity under the $16.4 trillion debt limit between mid-February and early March.

The House vote marked a sharp departure from Republican vows to use the debt ceiling issue as a way to extract spending cuts from President Barack Obama.