The United States Senate approved this Friday, after passing through the House of Representatives, a provisional spending bill to avoid the closure of the Government due to lack of funds, in a vote that has technically concluded after the deadline expired in midnight from Friday to Saturday and which has had ‘yeses’ from Democrats and Republicans.
The proposal, which received 366 votes in favor and 34 against in the Lower House, has been approved in the Senate with 85 yeses and 11 noes, according to data collected by CNN. The bill will be sent to the president, Joe Biden, to sign into law.
The text in question contemplates, among other issues, the extension of Government financing until March 2025, including considerations on aid for agriculture and for disaster situations. However, the legislative project does not refer to a possible suspension of the debt limit, approach demanded by President-elect Donald Trump from Republicans.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has described the initiative as a “very important piece of legislation,” and has warned that things are going to be “very different” when Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress in January while thanking that “everyone has come together to do the right thing“, according to statements collected by the same chain.
Johnson has also assured that he has maintained “constant contact” with Trump during the development of the negotiations on the financing bill and has predicted that “he will also be happy with the result” because “it is a good result for the country.”
This news comes after Donald Trump and his ‘number two’, JD Vance, criticized this Wednesday the spending proposal presented by the president of the House of Representatives, also a Republican Mike Johnson, after congressional leaders reached an agreement to extend the financing of the Government and avoid its closure, threatening to shut down the Government by refusing to support the aforementioned bipartisan temporary financing agreement.
In fact, hours shortly before the vote, the president-elect stated that “(there was) going to be a government shutdown”, it is better that it was “now” that he has not yet taken office and it is Democrat Joe Biden who is in charge of the White House.
In this regard, from the Oval Office, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has warned that “a government shutdown before the holidays would mean that service members and air traffic controllers would go to work without pay, they would be furloughed essential government services to working Americans and economic disruption would result.
Thus, he admitted that, although the proposal on the table did not include “everything they were looking for”, it would “guarantee that the Government can continue operating at full capacity”, which is why the current president, Joe Biden, “supports the advancement of this legislation and the guarantee that the vital services that the Government provides (…) can continue.
