US lawmakers have passed a temporary funding measure that would keep the government operating, while defunding President Obama's healthcare law.
The Republican-led House of Representatives voted 230-189 - largely down party lines - in favour of the controversial bill on Friday.
The Democratic-led Senate has promised to strip the "defund Obamacare" provision next week.
The White House has said it would veto the measure.
The government faces a potential shutdown on 1 October if Congress and Mr Obama do not agree on a temporary budget measure.
The Republican-sponsored bill proposes funding federal agencies at an annualised rate of more than $986bn (£615bn), but includes a provision that strips federal funding for the Affordable Care Act.
Also known as Obamacare, the 2010 law requires businesses with more than 50 workers to provide health insurance to all their full-time staff, or pay a series of increasingly severe penalties.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has called for an end to the law because it "is turning our full-time economy into a part-time economy".
On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Republicans were "simply postponing for a few days the inevitable choice" between passing a bill without the provision or forcing a government shutdown.
"The Affordable Care Act has been the law of the land for three years," he said in a statement. "The Senate will not pass any bill that defunds or delays Obamacare."
Source: BBC News - Business http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24178690#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
