If a shutdown of the federal government had occurred, local federal offices were prepared.

Federal employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Albert Lea and across the nation were planning to report to work on Monday, then take further direction.

Now, they know they will be able to have the doors open next week.

A last-minute budget deal forged amid bluster and tough bargaining averted an embarrassing federal shutdown, cut billions in spending and provided the first major test of the divided government that voters ushered in five months ago.

Working late into Friday night, congressional and White House negotiators finally agreed on a plan to pay for government operations through the end of September while trimming $38.5 billion in spending.

Lawmakers then approved a measure to keep the government running for a few more days while the details of the new spending plan are written into legislation.

Actual approval of the deal is expected in the middle of next week.

First District U.S. Rep. Tim Walz said he was pleased an agreement had been reached and he would vote in favor of legislation to keep the government running.

“I continue to believe we can be fiscally responsible and make government more efficient,” Walz said. “Republicans and Democrats need to work together to come up with real solutions to our fiscal policy.”

At 4:30 p.m. Friday, Walz’s press secretary Sara Severs said the congressman was in the middle of gathering information about if a potential deal was in the works.

Severs said Walz has done everything in his power to avoid a government shutdown, including voting for two of the Republican-backed short-term budget bills. She noted as of the end of the workday Friday that the issue holding up the federal budget was over access of health care to women.

Severs said Walz had proposed an amendment to keep Congress and the president from being paid during a shutdown; however, that bill failed because all of the House Republicans except for one voted against it.

He has also co-sponsored a bipartisan amendment in the House that would ensure troops continue to be paid in the event of a government shutdown.

Severs said the congressman’s office has been fielding many calls from constituents — mainly people wanting to know what services would be unavailable in the case of a shutdown.

Lee Crawford, the executive director of the Freeborn County offices of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency, said he spoke with the regional headquarters in St. Paul on Friday.

Workers were to come to the FSA offices Monday. The USDA office in Albert Lea is at 1400 W. Main Street near the Albert Lea Seed House and Farmers State Bank.

If a compromise had not been reached by Monday, workers were to await directions on the next steps, such as whether to shut down the computers and computer servers, to hang a message on the door saying the place is closed and to contact news media, he said.

The Natural Resources Conservation Agency is a separate USDA agency but shares the same office, as it does in many counties. Its director in Albert Lea reported having similar steps as the Farm Service Agency.

Social Security checks were going to still come, but Social Security employees are non-essential, and therefore wouldn’t be at work. Social Security administration workers in Austin and Rochester couldn’t comment on the government shutdown, and a call to the regional public relations office in Chicago went unanswered.

Most likely, Social Security workers, too, would have had to come to work Monday to find out whether they could open the office doors to the public.

“Americans of different beliefs came together again,” President Barack Obama said from the White House Blue Room, a setting chosen to offer a clear view of the Washington Monument over his right shoulder.

The agreement was negotiated by Obama, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. The administration was poised to shutter federal services, from national parks to tax-season help centers, and to send furlough notices to hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

All sides insisted they wanted to avoid that outcome, which at times seemed inevitable.

Shortly after midnight, White House budget director Jacob Lew issued a memo instructing departments and agencies to continue normal operations.

Boehner said the deal came after “a lot of discussion and a long fight.” He won an ovation from his rank and file, including the new tea party adherents whose victories last November shifted control of the House to the GOP. Reid declared the deal “historic.”

The deal marked the end of a three-way clash of wills. It also set the tone for coming confrontations over raising the government’s borrowing limit, the spending plan for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 and long-term deficit reduction.

In the end, all sides claimed victory.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.