He United States Congress approved this Thursday a new budget extension to avoid a administrative closure or ‘shutdown’ before currently available funds run out at midnight on Friday.
The House of Representatives approved the budget proposal with 314 votes in favor and 108 against, exceeding the two-thirds that the measure required. He did so shortly after the Senate also approved it with 77 votes in favor and 18 against.
In the House of Representatives, the extension faced the opposition from half of Republicans (106 votes against to 107 in favor), who criticized that his leadership in that chamber continues to give air to Joe Biden’s Government with these extensions.
“It doesn’t matter who’s sitting in the House Speaker’s chair or who has the majority, we’re still doing the same stupid things,” said conservative Chip Roy. His colleague Eli Crane took aim at the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, for having agreed to the extension with the Democrats: “Our president, Johnson, said he was the most conservative president we have ever had. However, here we are presenting this bill of law this afternoon without conservative policies.
In November of last year, Congress had approved the last budget extension that also avoided an imminent administrative closure with two expiration dates, January 19 and February 2, which at that time seemed very far away.
Johnson announced earlier this month that there was an agreement between Democrats, Republicans and the White House to approve the budget for fiscal year 2024 (which began on October 1, 2023) and avoid new extensions, but there has been no time to process it.
Deadline until March
The new budget extension also has two expiration dates ranging from March 1st to March 8th. “We need a little more time on the calendar to allow that process to develop,” said Johnson, who in November had committed not to promote or approve new extensions, said Wednesday. In addition to the legislative process to be followed, the agreement agreed upon and announced by Johnson faces internal opposition from a sector of the Republican Party, which as evidenced in today’s vote is divided.
The balance within the Republicans is very weak and a minority sector already brought down their previous leader, Kevin McCarthy, in October of last year, as a result of a budget agreement with the Democrats.
The approval of the extension did not satisfy the majority of Democrats either, despite the fact that the Senate majority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, congratulated himself for having managed to get legislators from both parties to work “late into the night.” ” on Wednesday to avoid administrative closure. “We have good news for the United States: there will be no shutdown on Friday. As both parties have worked together, the Government will remain open. Services will not be interrupted, we will avoid an unnecessary disaster,” he assured.
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His number two, Dick Durbin, however, expressed his discontent: “It is disappointing that the best we can do is ‘keep the lights on’ when we fund the government. We should address issues that are important to the American people, not drop the ball on the air once again.”
Every time an administrative closure is less than a week away, the White House activates a protocol to prepare all its departments. The closure means sending hundreds of thousands of public employees home without work or pay and the paralysis of many services.