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The US Congress averted a government shutdown following days of chaos on Capitol Hill, after the Senate passed a temporary funding measure in the early hours of Saturday.
The Senate passed the bill 85-11, with the measure winning bipartisan support. According to the White House, the bill was also passed by the House of Representatives earlier on Friday and is now being sent to US President Joe Biden, who will sign it into law later on Saturday.
Technically, Congress missed the midnight deadline for the shutdown, but not by enough to cause disruption. The White House said the federal government had stopped preparing for a shutdown before the Senate vote and that no agencies had paused operations.
The passed bill does not include any changes to the debt ceiling, despite calls from President-elect Donald Trump for lawmakers to use the law to eliminate restrictions on public borrowing. federal government.
“After several days of chaos in the House, it is good news that a bipartisan approach has finally prevailed,” Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said from the floor before the vote, calling the temporary measure “a good bill”.
The bill’s passage through both houses of Congress ended a tumultuous week in Washington when Trump and his ally, Elon Musk, have increased their influence over hard-line Republicans, leading them to reject what they see as “gifts” to the Democratic Party.
But Democrats also claimed victory, with House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries saying his party had “prevented radical Maga Republicans from shutting down the government”.
“House Democrats successfully stopped the billionaire boys club, which wanted a $4 trillion blank check by suspending the debt ceiling,” he added.
The bill’s progress appeared uncertain Friday after musk expressed continued disdain for the measure: “So is this a Republican bill or a Democratic bill?”
The bill was passed by the Speaker of the House by Mike Johnson the third attempt to push the bill through the chamber after Trump destroyed the first bipartisan agreement earlier in the week.
The new bill is nearly identical to Johnson’s second bill, but eliminates any move to increase or suspend the debt ceiling, despite Trump’s demands. It extends government funding at current levels until March 14 and provides aid for disaster relief and farmers.
Johnson said after the bill passed the House that he had been in “regular contact” with Trump and had spoken to Musk just before the vote and received their blessing.
Trump “knows exactly what we are doing and why, and this is a good outcome for the country. I think he’s certainly pleased with the result as well,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Johnson said he asked Musk: “’Hey, do you want to be Speaker of the House?’ . . . He said, ‘this could be the hardest job in the world’. That’s right.”
The passage in the House of Commons marked a victory for Johnson, who had previously declared that the US would “not let the government shut down”.
ONE shutdown will temporarily close government departments and suspend pay for federal employees. Previous government shutdowns have forced hundreds of thousands of federal employees to temporarily lay off their jobs.
Democrats, angry that the previous bipartisan deal was scrapped, blamed Musk for getting involved in the process himself this week, causing more unrest in Congress right away. ahead of the US holiday.
“At the behest of the world’s richest man without anyone voting, the United States Congress has descended into chaos,” Democrat Rosa DeLauro said of Musk on Thursday.
Some leading Republicans also appeared critical of Trump and Musk’s intervention.
“I don’t care how many times I remind you. . . Our House partners say how harmful a government shutdown would be, and how foolish it would be to bet that your side won’t be responsible for it,” said Mitch McConnell, leader of the House of Representatives. The outgoing Senate Republican, said Friday.
“That said, if I took it personally every time my advice wasn’t heeded, I probably wouldn’t have taken the time to do this particular job.”
