2023-10-01 17:17:51
An emergency agreement reached three hours before the deadline allows the administration to be financed for 45 days, but excludes aid to Ukraine.
A month and a half of respite. The United States avoided at the last minute the paralysis of its federal administration this Saturday, September 30, with the adoption by the Senate, just three hours of “shutdown», an emergency measure allowing it to temporarily continue its financing. This emergency provision adopted by Congress provides that the American administration continues to be funded for 45 days. However, it excludes aid to Ukraine at war, requested by the White House.
In a final attempt to avoid the paralysis of the American administration, the resolution proposed at the last minute by the (Republican) President of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, was adopted by the House before being validated by the Senate only three hours from “shutdown», which would have put civil servants on technical unemployment and cut food aid to certain beneficiaries.
“A total defeat of right-wing extremists”
Hundreds of thousands of American officials therefore held their breath as the deadline approached (midnight on the night of Saturday to Sunday), because neither chamber of Congress – neither the Senate in the hands of the Democrats, nor the House representatives controlled by the Republicans – had not found agreement on a finance law to extend the federal state budget.
If Kevin McCarthy’s measure had not been adopted, the world’s largest economy would have slowed down on Sunday: 1.5 million civil servants would have been deprived of pay and air traffic would have been disrupted, while visitors to national parks would have found the door closed. Saturday’s vote is “a victory for the American people, and a total defeat of right-wing extremists“, welcomed the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.
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Aid to Ukraine excluded from emergency agreement
Adopted with 335 yes (91 no) in the House, the text was then approved by 88 senators against 9.Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, avoiding an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted unnecessary suffering on millions of hardworking Americans“, welcomed President Joe Biden in a press release.
US lawmakers are now set to consider a separate bill for $24 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, which President Joe Biden wanted to see included in the budget. A vote could take place early next week, according to American media.
For its part, the Ukrainian government claims to be “working” with the Biden administration. “The Ukrainian government is actively working with its U.S. partners to ensure that the new U.S. budget decision, which will be made within the next 45 days, will include new funding to help Ukraine“said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko. “This situation will not prevent the flow of aid from continuing to arrive in Ukraine“, he assured.
International support for Ukraine is crucial in the country’s fight against Russia. The United States has helped kyiv the most, releasing some $110 billion in civil and military aid since February 2022.
Read alsoIn the United States, first doubts about aid to Ukraine
The blocking of Trumpist elected officials
To discuss aid to Ukraine, lawmakers must now consider a separate bill for $24 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, which Joe Biden wanted to see included in the budget. A vote could take place early next week, according to American media. The White House had initially demanded that the budget law include this $24 billion in aid.
«What Russia did was wrong. But I think whatever we do, we need to define what victory means and what the plan should be.“, Kevin McCarthy told the press. “I think there’s a real frustration across America that this president is ignoring the borders of the United States and is more concerned about somewhere else.“, he added, in allusion to what the Republicans describe as “migration crisis in the United States».
A handful of Trumpist Republican elected officials refuse to release any new aid to kyiv, believing that these funds should be allocated to managing the migration crisis. These lieutenants of Donald Trump, who have disproportionate power due to the very small Republican majority in the House, were ordered by the former president, who could face Joe Biden in 2024, to “paralyze» the federal state unless it wins its case on “all» the budgetary files under debate.
One of the leaders of the American hard right, Florida elected official Matt Gaetz, said on Sunday he wanted to dismiss the Republican President of the House of Representatives. “I fully intend to file a motion to impeach Speaker (Kevin) McCarthy this week“, he said on CNN. This fratricidal initiative was expected: the Republican President of the House of Representatives, Kévin McCarthy, elected at the cost of numerous negotiations with the Trumpists, said on Saturday that he was aware that he was risking his seat. “You know what, if I have to risk my position to defend the American people, I will“, he assured.
Under the presidency of Donald Trump, the United States had experienced its longest “shutdown», during the winter of 2018/2019. According to several estimates, the country’s GDP was then cut by more than 3 billion dollars.
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