WASHINGTON—A group of Democrats led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer helped Republicans advance a bill Friday to fund the government through September, averting a shutdown but leaving Democrats despondent and deeply divided over how to resist President Trump’s aggressive agenda.

The Senate passed a bill Friday that will fund the government through September and avert a shutdown. Some Democratic lawmakers had wanted to use a shutdown threat to curtail President Trump's mass firing of federal workers.

Congress averted a government shutdown Friday just hours before the funding deadline, after the Senate approved a House-passed spending bill that exposed deep rifts within the Democratic Party.