The law now goes to President Joe Biden, who must sign it. The bill only extends existing government spending guidelines and is therefore only a transitional arrangement. A divided Congress has been unable to agree on a funding bill for the entire budget year since September.
Funding for a number of ministries and federal agencies was scheduled to end on Saturday evening. As a result of the parliamentary decision, lockdown has now been avoided until at least 8 March.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said: “I am pleased to tell the American people that there will be no government shutdown on Friday.”
The law is called “Closing the Gap,” and it is an emergency measure. If a solution is not found quickly, many federal government services will not receive the funds and, for example, a large proportion of civil servants will not receive their wages.
more time
In the United States, government departments can be closed if politicians cannot agree on a state budget. Such a scenario has loomed on the horizon recently because Republicans hold a majority in the House of Representatives of Parliament and Democrats control the Senate.
With the extension – now the fourth – MPs now want to give themselves more time to conclude a long-term agreement. The problem lies mainly in the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Donald Trump's supporters are still preventing the passage of the 2024 federal budget.
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