The Senate on Monday cleared a key hurdle to passage of a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown at the end of September, but it was unclear whether the agreement could pass the House and head off a confrontation before the midterm elections.

The legislation, the product of bipartisan negotiations among senators, would keep federal funding flowing at current levels through Dec. 11 and bar the Trump administration from transferring funds to the Border Patrol, a provision that Democrats had insisted on.

The 89-4 vote reflected enthusiasm in the Senate for avoiding any shutdown skirmishes in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections, after two lengthy lapses in funding over the past several months. Three members of the Democratic caucus, Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, voted against advancing the measure. Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, also opposed it.

But the bipartisan legislation’s fate was uncertain in the House, which recessed for the summer last week after passing its stopgap funding bill that was opposed by all but a half-dozen Democrats. That measure would run through Dec. 4 and did not include any prohibitions on the Trump administration.

Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, called the interim spending bill “a major step toward averting a damaging shutdown that only harms vital programs and federal workers.”

Democrats also cheered a measure they said would head off a crisis.

“For months, Democrats have been clear: we want to fund the government, avoid a shutdown, and pass strong, bipartisan appropriations bills that improve people’s lives,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in a statement.