The Christmas “shutdown” will not take place: American President Joe Biden promulgated on Saturday the text adopted at the last minute in the night by Congress which avoids a budgetary paralysis of the federal state, announced the White House. Hundreds of thousands of civil servants would have been sent home for the holidays
Ending a tumultuous sequence of several days involving Donald Trump and Elon Musk, Congress largely adopted a law which ensures federal funding until mid-March. The text notably includes more than 100 billion dollars in aid for American regions recently devastated by natural disasters.
Just before Christmas
“This is a good result for America and for Americans,” said the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer. The last vote, within this upper house, took place shortly after the midnight deadline (06:00 Swiss).
US President Joe Biden then signed the text into law on Saturday morning, the White House said.
A budgetary paralysis would have meant technical unemployment for hundreds of thousands of civil servants, the freezing of social assistance or even the closure of certain nurseries. An extremely unpopular situation, especially just before Christmas.
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Democrats and Republicans alike thought on Tuesday that they had avoided any saga when the Republican President of the House of Republicans, Mike Johnson, announced that the two camps had reached a consensus on a budget text.
But the Christmas spirit fizzled: Elon Musk then Donald Trump dynamited the agreement the next day.
Agreement dynamited on Wednesday
“Kill the text,” the richest man in the world urged elected representatives of Congress on his social network X, denouncing spending which, according to him, is leading America to “bankruptcy”.
The boss of SpaceX and Tesla, who became an ally of Donald Trump, was followed a few hours later by the president-elect, who castigated an “extraordinarily expensive” text.
Their opposition had nipped the bill in the bud and offered a foretaste of Donald Trump's second term, with an uncompromising style, even if it meant causing chaos, reminiscent of his first four years in the White House.
No increase in the debt ceiling
But his return to power on January 20 will be accompanied by a major difference: the omnipresence at his side of Elon Musk, a controversial figure who has only gained power in recent months.
The law adopted Friday does not include an increase in the United States debt ceiling, although Donald Trump opposed the first text mainly for this reason.
The president-elect had even made it a sine qua non condition for any new budget agreement, otherwise he would fight “to the end” against it.
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