U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday reached a deal with Republicans and the White House to pass five spending bills to fund part of the government for the remainder of the fiscal year, as well as a stopgap measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), one day before a partial shutdown is set to begin.

If a shutdown did occur, it would have happened only two months after the previous one, which lasted for 43 days, the longest in U.S. history.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday reached a deal with Republicans and the White House to pass five spending bills to fund part of the government for the remainder of the fiscal year, as well as a stopgap measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), one day before a partial shutdown is set to begin.

President Donald Trump confirmed the latest development on social media after multiple U.S. media outlet reports.

"Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

"Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan 'YES' Vote," Trump said.

GOP Senate leaders are working to schedule a vote on Thursday night, CNN reported.

The deal will split the bill funding the DHS off from a "minibus" package of five other major funding bills. The Senate will instead move a stopgap bill known as a continuing resolution that would fund the DHS at current levels for two weeks, until Feb. 13.

Earlier in the day, the Senate failed to advance a six-bill funding package amid disputes over immigration policy. The chamber voted 45-55 on a procedural motion, falling short of the 60 votes needed to advance the House-approved funding package.

The recent two fatal shootings by federal enforcement in Minneapolis have prompted Democrats to seek changes to how immigration agencies operate. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that until Immigration and Customs Enforcement is properly reined in and overhauled legislatively, the DHS funding bill does not have the votes to pass the Senate.

Schumer outlined Democrats' demands on Wednesday, including ending roving patrols, tightening warrant rules, imposing an enforceable code of conduct that holds federal agents to the same use-of-force standards as local law enforcement, and implementing a "masks off, body cameras on" policy for federal agents.

"Democrats are in a strong position now because Trump's polling numbers have dropped and people across the country are outraged over the Minneapolis shootings," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

"Partisan differences make it difficult to resolve conflicts, and each side uses the budget bill to push its respective positions," West said.

Indeed, the two parties have been at each other's throats in recent years, and shutdowns have become a recurring part of the political landscape.

Christopher Galdieri, a political science professor at Saint Anselm College in the northeastern state of New Hampshire, told Xinhua: "Congress is just unwilling and unable to do the sorts of normal appropriations bills that would avoid this sort of thing."

Contributing to the problem is a decision dating back to the administration of former President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) that says without new appropriations, the government must halt non-essential activities, Galdieri said.

Before that, activity would continue under prior spending levels until Congress passed a new bill, on the assumption that Congress would not want the government to shut down, Galdieri said.

In recent years, Congress has often failed to reach agreement in time on appropriations for the new fiscal year, instead relying on short-term spending bills that effectively patch over funding at existing levels while continuing to wrangle over the details of annual appropriations. The federal government now faces the threat of a shutdown every few months, a situation that has become all too common.

Clay Ramsay, a researcher at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, told Xinhua that there are broadly three factions in Congress -- the main body of the Republican right, the Republicans who are even farther right, and the Democrats.

"This triangular mess is the primary driver of dysfunction," Ramsay said.

Johanna Dunaway, political science professor at Syracuse University, said that the shutdown is a symptom of the fact that "we've already experienced that shift -- from political disagreement and polarization to more serious issues like mutual delegitimization."

"We are, and have been for quite some time, at the point where the two opposing entities are systematically and intentionally undermining each other's legitimacy," Dunaway said.

The newly reached deal -- which includes five annual spending bills and a two-week funding measure to fund the DHS -- would have to be approved by both the Senate and the House, which is on recess this week and hasn't announced plans for lawmakers to return to Washington.

If a shutdown did occur, it would have happened only two months after the previous one, which lasted for 43 days, the longest in U.S. history.

Multiple U.S. federal agencies would have been impacted. Those include the Department of War, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.