Senate Passes Bill to Stop Shutdown, Awaits Biden’s Approval

On Thursday, the Democratic-majority U.S. Senate approved a short-term stopgap spending bill to prevent a partial government shutdown.

Let’s read the news and find out more.

Senate Passes Bill to Stop Shutdown, Awaits Biden’s Approval

Less than 36 hours before funding expires, the U.S. Senate approved a short-term stopgap spending bill, and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives supported the bill.

The bill will now head to President Joe Biden‘s desk to be signed into law after passing the Senate on a bipartisan vote of 77-13. It will have deadlines to fund one part of the government by March 8 and the other by March 22.

In the House earlier on Thursday, 207 Democrats and 113 Republicans voted 320–99 in favor of the short-term stopgap bill, buying Congress additional time to decide on funding for the entire fiscal year that began on October 1.

Biden stated that the approval spared Americans from a damaging shutdown; he also pointed out that “this is a short-term fix, not a long-term solution.”

The Republican House Speaker, Mike Johnson, and the Democratic Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, reached an agreement on a fiscal year discretionary spending cap of $1.59 trillion around two months ago.

Johnson, who has only held the speakership since late October, once again depended on a procedural tactic that could have angered the hardline conservatives.

He used the tactic that required Democrats to give the majority of votes to approve the stopgap spending bill.

The tactic, along with 97 “no” votes from his 219-member Republican conference, may challenge the speaker when he considers six full-year appropriations bills next week and proceeds to the controversial issue of Ukraine aid.

Following the completion of six more funding measures by March 22, three House Republicans, including Michael McCaul, the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, predicted that Johnson would prioritize aid to Israel, Ukraine, and US allies in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Senate approved the $95 billion national security bill earlier this month in a bipartisan vote.

In an appeal, Biden urged House Republicans “to move with urgency to get this bipartisan bill to my desk.”

Hardline Republicans seem to put pressure on Johnson to utilize the shutdown as a negotiating tool to compel Democrats to agree to conservative policy proposals, such as partisan provisions that would limit the number of migrants who may cross the border between the United States and Mexico.

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Don Bacon, both Republicans, have also put up aid legislation for US allies that would strip out humanitarian help and reinstate the return-to-Mexico border policy.

According to Representative Chip Roy, this group of Republicans is now trying to get Johnson to introduce a new spending bill to fund the government through September 30 but reduce non-defense expenditures while maintaining levels for veterans’ benefits and defense.

Sharing an opinion on the threat, Roy stated that Johnson wouldn’t face any threat, unlike the previous speaker, Kevin McCarthy.

It is predicted that Congress may still clash in the coming weeks over spending levels for numerous programs that conservatives want to cut back on, even with the temporary funding package that was passed on Thursday.