As of Thursday evening, President Joe Biden signed legislation that would keep the Federal Government funded until December 3, averting a partial federal government shutdown. The legislation was signed with just a few hours to spare. It was earlier in the day on Thursday when Congress gave its approval to the legislation.
The simultaneous passage of legislation by the Senate and then the House avoided one crisis, but the major parties are still at odds over how to increase the government’s borrowing limit before the United States faces the possibility of a potentially catastrophic default.
The House passed the short-term financing bill by a vote of 254-175, only a few hours after the Senate approved it by a vote of 65-35. It was defeated by a strong majority of Republicans in both houses of Congress. The law was required in order to keep the government operating when the current fiscal year came to an end at midnight on Thursday, as previously announced.
The passage of the bill will give legislators more time to draught the budget bills that would finance federal agencies and the programmed that they manage.
“There is so much more to be done,” President Joe Biden said in a statement after the signing. Although the bill was passed by a bipartisan vote, it serves as a reminder that bipartisan cooperation is possible, and it provides us more time to approve longer-term financing to keep our government operating and providing services to the American people.
In the background of their tumultuous day, Democrats fought to see through Biden’s main domestic objectives, including a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure package that is in danger of being stifled in the House. The effort to keep the government open and operating served as a counterpoint to their tumultuous day.
According to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, “It is a ray of optimism in the midst of a very busy schedule of other things.”
Rather of engaging in a debate over the debt limit in the government funding package, Democrats withdrew from it, agreeing to dissociate the borrowing ceiling at Republicans’ request, and instead chose to divorce the borrowing ceiling from the government funding legislation.
If the limit is not increased by October 18, the United States is likely to experience a financial catastrophe and economic recession, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
