The disaster scenario did not occur. The American Congress adopted, Thursday, January 18, a long-awaited provisional budget measure for the federal state, thus repelling the much-feared specter of “shutdown“, a partial budgetary paralysis which would have affected several non-essential services of the administration. After the Senate earlier in the afternoon, the House of Representatives adopted the text (by 314 votes against 108) so that the financing of several federal administrations, which was to expire Friday evening at midnight, or extended for six weeks, until March 1. The text must still be promulgated by Joe Biden, which is a formality. In the American media, a certain weariness is perceptible: “Another text”, ironizes Politico.
But the short-term funding measure will give lawmakers a chance to negotiate an aid deal for Ukraine, a thorny issue. Washington’s failure to send more military aid to kyiv has alarmed Western officials and was the subject of a rare White House meeting between Biden and congressional leaders earlier this week, recalls the Financial Times.
Joe Biden thus formulated a request for an additional $106 billion in the budget, mainly to help Ukraine, and to a lesser extent Israel. The leaders of both parties in the Senate are supporters of support for kyiv, but a number of Republican elected officials in the House say that such support is not in the interest of the United States. Speaking on Thursday, January 18, before a trip to North Carolina, Joe Biden warned of a “disaster” if no agreement was reached. “I think the vast majority of members of Congress support aid to Ukraine. The question is whether or not a small minority is going to stand in the way, which would be a disaster,” he said.
To win Republican support, a military assistance package would have to include measures to curb immigration at the U.S. border with Mexico. Republicans and Democrats alike agree on the existence of a crisis but differ on the response to be made. The former particularly wish to limit the right to asylum and strengthen expulsion measures. For his part, Donald Trump, favorite for the Republican Party nomination in 2024, opposes an increase in aid to Ukraine and has urged Republicans to oppose any agreement.
“Good news for America”
Outside of Ukraine, this text allows thousands of civil servants to avoid technical unemployment, in particular air traffic controllers. American elected officials were under pressure to quickly vote on this measure and thus avoid this famous partial “shutdown”, while Washington expects snowfall on Friday and the House of Representatives has already canceled the polls scheduled for that day. “We have good news for America: there will be no shutdown Friday,” said Chuck Schumer, leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, during a speech to his colleagues. “Because the two parties have worked together, the government will remain open, services will not be interrupted, we will avoid an unnecessary disaster,” he added.
The text adopted by Congress allows the government to continue financing state spending until the beginning of March, which gives elected officials time to agree on a long-term budget and the details of spending. This is the third time since the start of the fiscal year on October 1 that Congress has extended spending on a temporary basis, recalls the American daily The New York Times. The recurring inability of Congress to adopt a budget for the fiscal year (which began four months ago) illustrates the dysfunctions within the American institutional apparatus.
A “necessary” spending bill
The text voted on Thursday was the subject of tough negotiations between Republicans, the majority in the lower house, and Democrats, the majority in the upper house. In early January, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, announced an agreement with the Democrats on the total amount of the state budget for the 2024 fiscal year, establishing a limit on federal spending at around 1.7 trillion of dollars. Mike Johnson, who has an extremely narrow majority, has faced intense resistance from his right flank, with the disagreement between Republicans and Democrats over spending items.
Mike Johnson said in a statement that the short-term spending bill “is necessary to achieve what House Republicans are working hard to achieve: an end to omnibus governance, meaningful policy victories and better government management.” American taxation.
If lawmakers can’t reach agreement over the next six weeks, Congress may have to fall back on another stopgap spending bill, this time for the rest of the fiscal year.