(Adds White House statement; paragraphs 4, 5)
By Richard Cowan and Makini Brice
WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate approved legislation on Thursday to temporarily raise the federal government's $28.4 trillion debt limit and avoid the risk of a historic default this month, but put off until early December a decision on a longer-lasting remedy.
The Senate voted 50-48 to pass the bill following weeks of partisan fighting. Earlier, 11 Republicans voted in favor of a procedural vote allowing the bill to proceed.
The Senate-passed bill now goes to the House of Representatives, which needs to approve it before President Joe Biden can sign it into law. The House will hold a vote on the bill on Tuesday, according to the office of the No. 2 House Democrat, Steny Hoyer.
"President Biden looks forward to signing this bill as soon as it passes the House and reaches his desk," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in statement on Thursday.
"As we approach the coming months, we hope that even more Republicans will join Democrats in responsibly addressing the debt limit instead of choosing default or obstruction."
The $480 billion increase, which would lift the debt limit to $28.9 trillion, is expected to be exhausted by Dec. 3, the same day that funding for most federal programs expires under a stop-gap measure passed earlier this month following another partisan standoff.
That means that over the next eight weeks, the bitterly divided Congress will have the twin challenges of finding a middle ground on agency spending through September 2022 -- ranging from education and foreign aid programs to immigration enforcement and airport security -- and avoiding yet another debt limit meltdown.
The vote followed a months-long standoff that brought the nation close to the Oct. 18 date that the Treasury Department forecast as when it would no longer be able to meet its obligations.
"Republicans played a dangerous and risky partisan game and I am glad that their brinksmanship did not work," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the vote.
The plan emerged on Wednesday after top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said Republicans were open to a temporary hike after twice blocking Democrats' attempts to raise the cap. That offer came after Biden raised the possibility of bypassing the Senate's filibuster rule requiring 60 of the 100 members to agree on most legislation.
Not all Republicans were happy with McConnell's move, and it took long negotiations behind closed doors to secure enough Republican votes to advance the measure.