Senators Pass Bill To Avert Default America looks set to avoid a financial catastrophe after the Senate voted to pass a bipartisan deal to end the fiscal impasse. A last-minute agreement to avert a threatened US default and reopen the Government was reached on Wednesday. After the details were finalised it was put to the US Senate, and will now head to the House of Representatives shortly where it is expected to pass. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell struck a deal with Democrats President Obama, speaking at the White House, said that he would sign the bill into law as soon as it reached his desk to get the Government running as soon as possible. He said: "There's a lot of work ahead of us. We need to earn back the trust of the American people that's been lost over the past few weeks. The deal was struck by Senate majority leader Harry Reid and GOP leaders Mitch McConnell, and calls for the Treasury to have authority to continue borrowing through February 7, and reopen the Government through January 15. It means a fresh round of negotiations ahead of those dates, and Mr Obama said: "Hopefully next time (a deal) won't be in the 11th hour." The agreement comes just a day before the deadline to raise the Government's $16.7tn (£10.5tn) borrowing limit. Had no deal been reached, the Government would have started to default on its planned payments. Notably absent from the fresh agreement is a long-held Republican demand to defund aspects of President Obama's signature health care law. Republican House speaker John Boehner said: "We fought the good fight, we just didn't win." He gave a fist pump in front of photographers as he left late talks before the vote. The agreement sent the stock market soaring on Wednesday, pushing the Standard & Poor's 500 index close to a record high. Most traders had expected some sort of deal, given that a failure to reach a deal could have pushed the US into another recession. Eric Wiegland, a senior portfolio manager, said: "Investors have become, unfortunately, accustomed to some of the dysfunction. It's become more the norm than the exception.