The American Congress adopted, shortly after midnight on Saturday, a law guaranteeing funding for the federal state until mid-March.
Published on 21/12/2024 08:04
Updated on 21/12/2024 08:04
Reading time: 2min
The Christmas shutdown will ultimately not take place. On Saturday, December 21, the United States narrowly avoided a budgetary paralysis that would have sent hundreds of thousands of civil servants home without pay for the holidays. Congress largely adopted a law ensuring funding for the federal government until mid-March. This text notably includes more than 100 billion dollars in aid for American regions recently devastated by natural disasters.
The vote took place shortly after the midnight deadline. The White House office responsible for declaring a state of “shutdown” ultimately did not do so, due to the imminent adoption of the text in the Senate. “It’s a good result for America and for Americans”rejoiced the leader of the current Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer.
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.
On Tuesday, both Democrats and Republicans thought they had avoided any saga when the Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, announced that the two camps had reached consensus on a budget text. But President-elect Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk blasted the deal the next day.
Main person responsible for the discussions, Mike Johnson was pressed on the one hand by the Democrats to return to the negotiated text, and by certain conservative elected officials refusing outright any text that did not include a budget cut. The law passed Friday does not include an increase in the US debt ceiling. Donald Trump opposed the first text mainly for this reason.
Mike Johnson claimed to have been in “contact constant” with Donald Trump and that he was “happy with the result”. According to information from the Semafor media, the future president is unhappy with the lack of provision for the debt ceiling. Mike Johnson also said he spoke with Elon Musk, who greeted on “good job” of “speaker” to renegotiate the budgetary text downwards.
