By JM Rieger and John Bennett and Matthew Fleming

The Senate sent to President Barack Obama a massive fiscal package early Friday morning that averts a U.S. debt default and raises spending caps. The chamber worked into the wee hours of the morning. Senators cleared a key procedural hurdle on a 63-35 vote and then passed the sweeping budget deal in a 64-35 vote that also suspends the debt limit into 2017. Read more.