The Democratic and Republican leaders of the two chambers of the United States Congress reached an agreement this Tuesday agreement to extend Government financing until March 14 and avoid its closurescheduled for this Friday.
The funding expires this week, when Congress will adjourn for the Christmas holidays. The new date will give time for the next Congress (led by Republicans) and the new Donald Trump Administration to resolve the financing of the Government, although it marks a complicated start to the Government for the magnate, reports the American television network NBC.
The text, of more than 1,500 pages, includes 100.4 billion dollars (95.6 billion euros) for disaster relief funds, intended to repair the damage caused by hurricanes ‘Helene’ and ‘Milton’. It also includes $10 billion (€9.5 billion) in economic aid for farmers and a provision reauthorizing a Department of Homeland Security program to counter drone threats.
The president of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, has highlighted that, “despite the fact that the Government is divided”, they have approved “important conservative laws” such as the bill “for stronger border security and key energy policies,” as well as “countering” its “foreign” adversaries. “With a Republican majority in both chambers of the next Congress and the return of Trump to the White House, we will finally be able to make our priorities become law,” he stated through his profile on the social network X.
For his part, the current leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, has stressed that his party’s legislators “continue to work with Republicans on a strong bill that will prevent a government shutdown while providing critical disaster relief for the American people.”
This new agreement is provisional in nature, as has been customary in recent months due to disagreements between both parties regarding the annual budget, in which Republicans ask to increase funding for border security and Democrats urge approve new aid funds for Ukraine.
