International Desk: The United States avoided a government shutdown at the last moment. A compromise between the House of Commons and the Senate on short-term funding for the government saved the Biden administration from a major crisis. Without this leave, millions of US government employees would have been sent on unpaid leave, and various critical government services would have been shut down.
On Saturday (September 30), a stopgap funding bill to fund the US government until mid-November passed the Senate by a vote of 88-9. However, it did not include any new aid plans for Ukraine. BBC news.
It was approved by a vote of 335-91 in the House of Representatives. Democrats were more likely to support it than opposing Republicans.
The bill, approved by the House of Representatives, must now be approved by the Senate, the upper house of Congress. But it is expected to pass easily there. And then, once it is signed into law, it will help avoid potential disruptions to US federal services.
Incumbent Democrats, meanwhile, hailed avoiding a shutdown as a victory. About 209 Democrats supported the bill, according to Reuters. On the other hand, the number of Republicans supporting this bill is 126.
Democrats later hailed the outcome as a victory in avoiding a shutdown. However, Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has come under pressure from hardliners in his own party as the bill passes.
Complications arose in the United States mainly over the passage of a bill to finance the central government. If it doesn’t pass, US government agencies could shut down after Saturday (midnight local time on October 1). Which is known as ‘Shutdown’ in the country.
Appropriations for the new fiscal year are approved on October 1 each year by the upper house, the Senate, and the lower house, Congress, to cover government spending. Former President Donald Trump’s party blocked the appropriations bill in the Republican-controlled lower house of Congress. They have demanded massive cuts in government spending from President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party. Only then did they announce the approval of the allocation of funds for the new financial year.
On the other hand, the Democratic Party is ahead by only one seat in the Senate, the upper house of Congress. And Republicans control the lower house of Congress. As a result, the two parties had to reach a consensus to keep the government functioning. As such, the House passed a bipartisan bill at the last minute to avoid a government shutdown.
Although the shutdown can be avoided for the time being, some Republicans demand that government spending be reduced a lot. They have even demanded cuts in aid to Ukraine, which is waging war against Russia.
