Government shutdown averted as Biden signs last-minute bipartisan bill approved Saturday night on Capitol Hill
The US government avoided a disastrous shut down Saturday, after Congress passed a last-minute, short-term funding bill and President Joe Biden signed it just before midnight, according to reports.
The Senate approved the stopgap funding measure, known as a continuing resolution, or CR, by a final vote of 88-9, hours after the House passed it 335-91, with votes from both sides of the isle.
Biden finally signed it with just minutes to go before many government operations would have shut down.
“Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hard working Americans,” Biden said in a statement according to the publication.
The CR was hailed by Sen. Leader Chuck Schumer.
“I have very good news for the country. Democrats and Republicans have come to an agreement and the government will remain open,” he said. “We will have avoided a shutdown.
“Bipartisanship, which has been the trademark of the senate, prevailed and the American people can breathe a sigh of relief,” he added.
The bill had overwhelmingly passed in the House of Representatives 335-91 hours earlier after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) dropped demands from his GOP colleagues for massive spending cuts, and instead relied on rare support from across the aisle.
The deal will increase federal disaster assistance by $16 billion and keep the government open until at least November 17 — however it notably did not include new funding to Ukraine that was proposed under an earlier plan, which became a point of contention among Senate Democrats.
Before the vote, Sen. Michael Bennet [R-Colo.] objected to the stop gap measure over concerns of the lack of funding for Ukraine, CNN reported.
The bill’s passage ensures that thousands of federal workers will avoid furloughs and nonessential government programs will remain up and running Saturday’s deal. Additionally, more than 2 million active-duty reserve military troops won’t have to work without pay with a deal struck.
President Biden lauded the bipartisan agreement, but blamed “extreme House Republicans” for dragging their feet “by demanding drastic cuts that would have been devastating for millions of Americans,” he said in a statement.
“I want to be clear: we should never have been in this position in the first place. Just a few months ago, Speaker McCarthy and I reached a budget agreement to avoid precisely this type of manufactured crisis,” Biden said.
He also said the United States “cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted” and expected McCarthy “will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment.”
The package keeps government funding at current 2023 levels for the next 45 days and also extends other provisions, including for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Dropping $6 billion in Ukraine aid from the bill proposed earlier by the Senate was a blow for lawmakers of both parties who’d vowed to support President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his recent Washington visit.
Mitch McConnell, who has championed Ukraine aid despite opposition from within his own party, said he will continue pursuing U.S. support for Kyiv’s ongoing war against Russia.
“I have agreed to keep fighting for more economic and security aid for Ukraine,” McConnell, R-Ky., said before the vote.
House Republicans’ previous short-term proposals had fallen flat amid objections both Democrats and some GOP hardliners.
Republican holdouts argued that a CR is essentially an extension of the previous Democratically-held Congress’ priorities, and slap to the House GOP majority’s vow to pass 12 individual spending bills laying out conservative priorities in the next fiscal year.
The last-minute deal came together just one day after 21 House Republicans joined a united bloc of Democrats to reject a one-month continuing resolution that would have allowed the government to keep operating with 30% cuts in discretionary spending for everything but defense and veterans’ agencies.
McCarthy — whose slender 4-vote majority was overwhelmed by Friday’s defections — had publicly pleaded with his caucus to support the stopgap measure, which included several provisions on border security as a sweetener for conservatives.
Biden is expected to sign Saturday’s revised bill before midnight.
With Post Wires
