According to Jamaal Bowman, a New York Democrat, it was an accident.

His opponents, however, accuse him of disrupting a vote intended to avert a government shutdown.

An hour-long evacuation was prompted by the alarm. In the end, a deal was reached to avoid a shutdown.

As Democrats attempted to delay the vote in order to read the bill and decide whether to support it, an alarm went off. As I was rushing to vote today, I came across a door that usually opens for votes, but was closed today. My apologies for activating the fire alarm, thinking it would open the door,” Mr Bowman said in a statement.

According to him, he was not “trying to delay any vote in any way”.

To keep our government open, I joined my colleagues in a bipartisan effort to get to a vote, which I eventually did.”

Nevertheless, Republicans have accused him of deliberately sabotaging the election.

House administration committee chair Brian Steil, a Republican from Wisconsin, announced an investigation.

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House Speaker, called it a “new low”.

“I was really appalled at what Democrats did today, to delay it and create a shutdown,” he said.

Until 17 November, the government will be funded by the bill. Minutes before midnight, President Biden signed it into law.

McCarthy put forward the proposal as he fought off a rebellion by hard-liners.

Millions of federal employees and military personnel would have been delayed in receiving their salaries if Congress had failed to keep the government open.