Iowa's senators, representatives vote to avert a government shutdown. What they're saying:

Each member of Iowa's all-Republican U.S. Senate and U.S. House delegation voted with a majority of their chambers Saturday to pass a last-minute funding deal to keep the government running.

The legislation continues government funding at current levels for roughly 45 days and includes natural disaster aid and FAA reauthorization. It now goes to President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it.

The government was poised to shut down at midnight Saturday if Congress had failed to send a deal to Biden.

More: House moves closer to avoiding catastrophic government shutdown, passing short-term deal

A shutdown would have furloughed thousands of federal employees and halted or delayed government services. Although some services deemed essential would have continued, many federal employees would have had to work without pay until Congress reached a resolution.

Here's what Iowa's members of Congress are saying about the deal:

1st District U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks

U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican representing southeastern Iowa, said she's glad the House reached a deal to fund the government.

"Shutting down the government should be a last resort," she said in a statement on social media. "My priority has always been to protect and represent my constituents to the best of my ability and I cannot justify shutting down our entire government over obscure policy decisions."

Miller-Meeks said a shutdown would mean a lapse in pay for military families and veterans.

"These are real people that would have been affected by the political games both sides in Washington were playing," she said. "I am glad that we came together and reached an agreement to fund the government and I will continue to work to pass legislation that strengthens our military and our border."

2nd District U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson

U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican representing northeastern Iowa, said she voted in favor of the deal while the House works to pass year-long spending bills.

"I supported today's short-term measure to keep the government open while the House continues to pass single-subject appropriations," she said in a statement on social media. "D.C. is so beyond broken, and it's the American people who feel the pain from the brinksmanship — not politicians. I will continue working around the clock to keep our government open, bring conservative, fiscally responsible spending bills across the finish line and work to make this place run better for taxpayers."

3rd District U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn

U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, a Republican representing metro Des Moines and central and southern Iowa counties, said "the status quo in D.C. is critically broken."

In a statement, Nunn criticized the process of passing continuing resolutions that fund the government at the previous year's spending levels, but said he voted in favor to avoid shutting down the government.

"We cannot continue stumbling along with continuing resolutions that do nothing to cut spending, but we also cannot right the ship by letting it sink," Nunn said in a statement. "That’s why I’m voting to keep the government open — ensuring no Iowan loses their access to critical services and programs — while we urgently continue working to cut wasteful spending. The Senate must now do its job to keep the military paid, defend our national security, and protect our economy from disaster."

More: Iowa's Zach Nunn says United States shouldn't send any new taxpayer dollars to aid Ukraine

4th District U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra

U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, a Republican who represents western border counties and northwestern and north central Iowa, released a statement saying the House must continue to pursue "a transparent and fiscally sound appropriations process."

"The American people are fed up with the dysfunction in Congress and expect us to deliver real results," Feenstra said in a statement. "That’s why I voted to ensure that our troops and border patrol agents receive their full pay, our seniors receive their Social Security checks, our veterans receive the quality healthcare they have earned, and our government remains operational. This legislation provides us the necessary time to curb President Biden’s wasteful spending policies through a transparent and fiscally sound appropriations process. We must now continue our important work to secure our border, reduce reckless government spending, and honor our Commitment to America."

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst

Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst made this statement on Facebook: "I just voted to keep the government up and running to serve Iowans and pay our servicemembers.

"There’s no excuse for Congress consistently failing to pass spending bills on time. I’ll continue holding Washington accountable to cut the pork and do its job."

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley

Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley posted a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying he was thankful the government didn't shut down.

"Unfortunately shutdowns & short term continuing resolutions fail to address the fiscal insanity we are experiencing(.) Dems need to get serious about addressing our fiscal future let’s work in a bipartisan way to make real fiscal reforms(.)"

Democrats criticize Republicans ahead of potential shutdown

Earlier Saturday, before the House and Senate approved the deal, Iowa House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, criticized the state's Republican congressional delegation for "following Donald Trump and MAGA extremists" who have stood in the way of a deal.

"Lead, talk to people, work inside your caucus and get something done," she said of Iowa's GOP representatives. "Iowans didn't send you there to sit back and wait. Iowans sent you there to work, and if you can't, get out of the way, because we got some great candidates who can."

Former state Rep. Christina Bohannan, a Democrat who is running against Miller-Meeks, criticized her opponent for promoting a tailgate fundraiser with GOP presidential candidates in the final days before the government ran out of money.

"The fact that Miller-Meeks is asking taxpayers to fund her campaign while she has done nothing to stand up for the real people back here in Iowa who will be affected by the shutdown is the definition of out of touch," Bohannan said in a statement Friday, before the House voted on the continuing resolution.

More: How would Iowa be affected by a government shutdown? Here's what to know:

Deal to avert government shutdown follows tumultuous week

The last-minute deal follows a tumultuous week in which hardline Republicans in the House pushed for steep spending cuts that Democrats said violated a deal that Republicans made with Biden when they voted to raise the debt ceiling over the summer.

As negotiations moved into their final days, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy introduced a stopgap bill that would have kept the government open for 30 days while cutting most programs by 30%.

All four of Iowa’s Republican House members voted to support it, but the proposal failed to pass.

McCarthy has focused on passing year-long spending bills with steep spending cuts, although he's suffered several setbacks from conservative members of his caucus.

As of Saturday, the Republican-controlled House had passed four of the 12 appropriations bills necessary to fund the government through the next fiscal year. However, the Senate was not expected to consider much of the legislation because of the depth of the spending cuts.

The impasse could mean trouble for keeping the government open once the short-term funding deal expires in November.

Grassley has said that the cost of shutting down the government and reopening it, as well as the disruption to services, was reason enough to avoid a shutdown.

"Even more idiotic in this whole argument about shutting down the government is the fact that people say they want to accomplish A, B, C or X, Y, Z," Grassley said Wednesday. "And so you shut the government down and then a few days later, or in one instance three weeks later, you get so much heat that you open government up again and you didn't accomplish A, B, C or X, Y, Z."

He said he would support an amendment to make continuing resolutions automatic, thus avoiding future government shutdowns, if the proposal came up for a vote.

"And that would just take all of the wind out of the sails of the 20 people in the House of Representatives that are kamikaze as they approach this whole issue," Grassley said.

Des Moines Register reporters Brianne Pfannenstiel and Galen Bacharier contributed to this article.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa's senators, representatives vote for deal to avoid a shutdown