US Government shutdown set to END after Senate votes through breakthrough Bill

Senators have voted through a Bill to end the US Government shutdown after 40 days.

A breakthrough agreement to bring the longest shutdown in history to a close has secured cross-party backing - with a formal vote passing in the Capitol 60-40.

The shutdown had started on October 1 after the US Congress had failed to agree to a highly contentious new funding deal.

Donald Trump's eyes had been squarely fixated on cutting needless spending.

But to the President's fury, his party's 53 seats in the Senate were not enough to pass it.

Public sector workers went unpaid and Americans were left without essential services - while some have blamed a month of travel chaos and calamity on the shutdown.

Democrats and Republicans were gridlocked for weeks without any signs of a compromise, before news emerged on Sunday night in Washington DC that a "stopgap" deal had been reached.

Eight Democrats, enough for the measure to clear the Republican-run Senate, backed the measure.

The deal was brokered by two New Hampshire Democrats, Senators Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, and Angus King, an independent from Maine.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer - the upper house's top Democrat - said he would vote against the measure.

The amended package will still need to be passed by Congress and sent to Mr Trump for his signature, which could take several days.

Under the agreement, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is promising Senate Democrats a vote in December to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies currently due to expire at the end of the year.

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Donald Trump has pushed to replace subsidies for the Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplaces with direct payments to individuals.

The government-opening deal also guarantees that federal employees laid off during the shutdown are re-hired, and gives federal employees backpay for the 40 days of inaction.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis said the mounting effects of the shutdown had forced politicians' hand.

"Temperatures cool, the atmospheric pressure increases outside and all of a sudden it looks like things will come together," he said.

Global markets rallied somewhat through the night after news broke that the cogs of the US could soon be back in motion.

Optimistic Asian markets jumped - Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 0.6 per cent, while Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures rose by 0.8 and 0.5 per cent in early trade.