U.S. House of Representatives approved a stopgap funding bill that delays key part of Obamacare on Monday night as a government shutdown approaches.

In a vote of 228 to 201, the Republican-led House passed the proposal which ties the funding to the government to a delay in the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

The latest plan would keep the government operating through mid-December and delay the individual mandate of the healthcare law. It was approved after the Senate earlier Monday afternoon rejected a House measure to delay Obamacare for a year and repeal the law's medical device tax.

The bill will leave the Congress in a stalemate and push the government to the brink of a shutdown. Democrats insisted that a straightforward bill should be passed, while the Republicans wanted to take the government funding bill as leverage to force delays on Obamacare.

With a government shutdown just a few hours away, the short-term bill now heads to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where delaying the healthcare law is a nonstarter.

Failure to reach an agreement on terms for funding the government by midnight Monday would force the first partial U.S. government shutdown since 1996.