2023-11-16 08:59:50
“This year, there will be no shutdown”, summarized the leader of the majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, during a press conference. After the American House of Representatives on Tuesday, the Senate voted 87 votes to 11, Wednesday, November 15 in the evening, a budgetary extension until mid-January of the federal state budget, which was due to expire on Friday, November 17 at midnight. This vote therefore prevents the imminent paralysis of the American administration in the run-up to the Thanksgiving holidays, scheduled for Thursday, November 23.
If this extension had not been adopted, 1.5 million civil servants would have lost their salaries, air traffic disrupted, while visitors to national parks would have found their doors closed.
The spending program maintains public funding at current levels for approximately two months while a long-term spending program is negotiated. It splits the deadlines for passing full-year appropriations bills into two dates: January 19 for some federal agencies and February 2 for others, creating two deadlines where there will be a risk of a shutdown part of the government.
The two-step approach was not the initial choice of many senators, even if a majority of elected officials supported it in order to escape the shutdown. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, voted for the bill but said it would eventually “double the risk of shutdown”.
Other budgets to vote on after Thanksgiving
The spending bill does not include the White House’s nearly $106 billion request for war aid to Israel and Ukraine, as well as humanitarian funding for the Palestinians and other additional requests . Lawmakers will likely turn more attention to the request after the Thanksgiving holiday in hopes of brokering a deal.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who developed the plan, pledged he would not support any other stopgap funding measures. He described the temporary funding bill as setting the stage for a ” struggle “ on spending with the Senate next year.
The new speaker – he was elected on October 25 – who told journalists this week that he counted himself among the « archiconservateurs » of the House of Representatives, advocates for deeper spending cuts. He wanted to avoid forcing lawmakers to consider a massive government funding plan before the December recess — a tactic that particularly infuriates conservatives.
Read also: United States: Republicans propose an unusual temporary plan to avoid a shutdown
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