The 4,155-page budget includes, among other things, $45 billion for Ukraine, an amount that was raised after the president of war-torn Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, was in Washington this week.
The budget has previously also been approved by the Senate and was passed with 225 votes in favor and 201 votes against. The torch now goes to President Joe Biden in the White House, who is expected to sign.
Republicans voted for
Nine Republican members of the House of Representatives supported the budget in the decisive vote, on Friday evening Swedish time. Seven of these members will no longer remain in Congress after the turn of the year, when they will be replaced by members who won in the mid-year election on November 8. The other two have already received signals that they may be politically boycotted by their party colleagues in the future.
Another member chose to vote against the party line, Democrat Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York state, who voted against the budget.
The budget is seen as the finish line for 82-year-old Nancy Pelosi as majority leader in the House of Representatives. She will be replaced after the turn of the year by someone from the Republican Party, probably Kevin McCarthy.
— This is monstrous, one of the most shameful documents I have seen here, McCarthy said in the debate before the vote on the now approved budget.
He added that when his party takes control of the House of Representatives in 2023, there will no longer be any “blank checks” written to Ukraine.
Pelosi responded:
— We have a big budget here because we have big needs.
— It was sad to hear the minority leader (McCarthy) say that this bill is the most shameful thing he has seen in the House of Representatives during this Congress. I can’t help but wonder if he has forgotten January 6, she added.
She made this statement in reference to the violent attack on Congress nearly two years ago, when armed supporters of then-outgoing President Donald Trump tried to forcefully stop Congress from approving Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
No increase in the spending ceiling
Nine people, including five police officers, who were involved in the clashes on 6 January 2021 died during or shortly after the attack.
The budget that is now ready includes, among other things, 850 billion dollars for the United States’ defense forces, an increase of 10 percent of the defense appropriations. Among other things, a large investment must be made in the development of new military technology, such as supersonic robots.
However, the decision does not include an increased expenditure ceiling. This paves the way for congressional Republicans to try to defund the budget and force federal shutdowns and freeze payments.
To agree to raise the spending ceiling, leading Republicans have already called for major budget cuts, something neither Joe Biden nor his party are expected to accept without a political fight.