The US House of Representatives on Saturday evening approved an emergency funding bill for the next 45 days, proposed by Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. This has prevented the threatened shutdown, or the shutdown of the federal state, for the time being. The Senate must still approve this and President Joe Biden must sign the law. They are unlikely to stop the law.
McCarthy’s proposal was widely supported by both Democrats and Republicans. As many as 209 Democrats voted in favor, along with 126 Republicans. Only 91 House members voted against it.
A government shutdown threatened in the United States because the deadline for approving the budget in the US would expire at midnight, 6 a.m. Dutch time. A group of conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives refused to approve this and pushed for a shutdown. They did not agree to the budget because they want to cut back on social assistance and education, among other things. They also want to stop aid to Ukraine.
Also read: Squabbles in Washington now also threaten Ukraine
If the deadline were not met, the federal government would be partially locked down after midnight local time, meaning only the most necessary payments could be made. This would leave civil servants without a salary until an agreement on the budget was reached. Public places such as museums and national parks also close during a shutdown and road works and air traffic may be delayed.
Impeachment proceedings
For a while it seemed as if no proposal would be put to the vote because a group of radical Republicans was putting pressure on McCarthy. Because he put the emergency financing law to the vote, he risks impeachment proceedings against him.
At the beginning of this year, McCarthy was elected speaker of the US House of Representatives, but a group of radical Republicans refused to vote for him because he wanted to work closely with the Democrats. McCarthy was ultimately elected, but on the condition that if one member of Congress wanted to impeach him, impeachment proceedings would be initiated against him.