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Economics editorial team
With a large bipartisan majority and the green light also from the House and Senate, the US Congress passes a simplified law that finances the government until March
The United States Congress has passed a law to avert a federal government shutdown, narrowly avoiding the closure of federal businesses before Christmas. The law decree was approved at the last minute with respect to the deadline, about half an hour before midnight (local time), when otherwise the stop would have been triggered to the budget to finance government activities by the end of the fiscal year. The White House office in charge of declaring the closure, however, did not do so counting on the imminent vote of the Senate, which expressed itself positively just before 1 am, after the green light also from the House.
President Biden's signature
The law to finance the federal government until March had already been approved by a large bipartisan majority in the House, with 366 in favor and 34 against. Now the plan will end up on President Joe Biden's desk for signature. “The law just approved is in the name of America First,” said the speaker of the US House, Mike Johnson, immediately after the passage of the new measure to avoid the shutdown. “I was in close contact with Trump, he knows exactly what we were doing and he agreed”, added the Republican, underlining that he had also spoken with Elon Musk who defined his job as a speaker as “the most difficult in the world”.
What the plan includes
Biden has also said he supports the law to avoid a federal government shutdown. «Following an order from President-elect Trump, Republicans yesterday canceled a bipartisan agreement and threatened to paralyze the government at the last moment to pave the way for tax breaks for billionaires. This law does not do that,” he said in a statement White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre gave her blessing to the measure. The approved plan, according to American media, provides for federal government funding at current levels until March 14 and 110 billion dollars in spending for post-hurricane reconstruction aid and the agricultural sector. The debt ceiling hike requested by the president-elect is not included.
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December 21, 2024
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