According to media reports, US President Joe Biden has signed a three-month government funding bill, thereby averting an impending shutdown and postponing full negotiations about government spending until after the November elections.
The stopgap spending bill, known as the Continuing Resolution, or CR, would extend government funding until December 20, The Guardian reports.
It would also provide an additional $231 million to the Secret Service “for actions necessary to conduct protective operations, including the 2024 presidential campaign and national special security programs,” following the two recent assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump.
Biden signed the bill a day after the House and Senate passed the legislation with broad bipartisan majorities in both chambers.
“Passage of this bill will give Congress more time to pass a full year’s funding bill by the end of the year,” Biden said Wednesday.
“My Administration will work with Congress to ensure that these bills protect America’s national defense, protect veterans, seniors, children and working families, and meet the immediate needs of the American people, including communities recovering from disasters. “
The Republican House Speaker, Mike Johnson, initially tried to pass a more right-wing proposal that would have combined the six-month stopgap funding measure with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a controversial proposal that would have required people to Will need to show proof. Citizenship when they register to vote.
That effort failed last week, when all but 14 Republicans and two Democrats opposed Johnson’s bill. The failure forced Johnson to take a three-month spending bill that was narrow enough to win the support of Democrats. The House passed that bill on Wednesday by 341 votes to 82, with all opposition to the legislation coming from Republicans.
“Our legislative work ahead of November is now officially complete and today the House did the necessary work,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday.
“We took the initiative and passed a clean, narrow, three-month CR to prevent the Senate from being jammed with another bloated bill while continuing to file proposals.”
Johnson nodded at widespread opposition to the bill at his convention, as 82 Republicans voted against it amid complaints of wasteful spending, The Guardian reports.
Johnson said, “While a continuing resolution is never ideal – none of us like them; it’s not a way to run a railroad – it allows Congress to continue serving the American people through elections. Gives.”
Once the House passed the resolution released Wednesday afternoon, the Senate immediately moved to consider the bill. The upper chamber passed the bill just two hours later by a bipartisan vote of 78 to 18.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer thanked Johnson for his work to avoid a shutdown, but he lamented that it took until the last minute for Congress to pass the funding package when it had seemed obvious for several weeks. That a narrow stopgap would be necessary.
“The American people can sleep easy tonight knowing that we have avoided an unnecessary government shutdown at the end of the month,” Schumer said before the vote.
“It’s a relief to the country that, once again, a bipartisan partnership prevailed to prevent the threat of another shutdown. It took longer than it should have, but because House Republicans finally worked with us “Decided to do it, Congress is getting it done tonight.”
Schumer had previously blamed Donald Trump for the delay, as the former president had urged Republican lawmakers to reject any funding bill unless it was tied to “election security” measures. The newly signed bill does not meet that demand, but Johnson stressed that Trump supported Republican efforts to keep the government funded.
“Former President Trump understands the current dilemma and the situation we are in,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday.
“So we’re going to continue to work together. I’m not disparaging President Trump. We’re doing our job, and I think he understands that.”
Both houses of Congress have now been adjourned for six weeks, meaning members will not return to Capitol Hill until Election Day. Johnson’s decision to rely on Democratic support to pass the funding package has raised questions about his future as speaker, but he spoke on Wednesday about his leadership and the prospects for expanding his party’s narrow House majority. Expressed confidence about.
“It would be foolish to predict a certain number of seats, but I just want to say that I am very optimistic,” Johnson told reporters.
“I’m confident we’re going to run the House. And I intend to serve as speaker in the new Congress.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
