Chamber of Deputies approves provisional measure to keep the government open for 45 days

The Lower Chamber of U.S approved this Saturday a provisional measure to finance the federal government for 45 days and avoid the imminent closure of the Administration at midnight, a rule that must also be approved by the Senate, with a Democratic majority.

The proposal was announced this morning by the president of the Chamber, the Republican Kevin McCarthyand obtained a total of 334 votes in favor, 209 from Democratic congressmen and 125 from Republicans, who have a majority in the Chamber of Deputies.

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A total of 91 Republicans voted against, many of them belonging to the group of supporters of former President Donald Trump, who are grouped under the “Freedom Caucus” and also known as MAGA, who maintain their support for McCarthy, considering him too moderate.

“I don’t want to be part of the team that believes the only option is to close our doors and not pay our troops,” McCarthy said at a press conference after the vote. He prefers, he added, “to be part of a conservative group that wants things to be resolved.”

In turn, the leader of the Democratic minority in the Lower House, Hakeem Jeffries, stated that in the last 24 hours we have gone from “devastating cuts that would have impacted the health security and economic well-being of the American people” to “a spending plan of agreement that meets the needs of the American people at all levels.”

“The Republican MAGA extremists (the name given to the “Make America Great Again” slogan that former President Trump used in his first election campaign) lost. “It was a victory for the American people and it is a complete and total surrender,” he said.

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The rule will now have to be voted on in the Senate, with a Democratic majority, which has until midnight to avoid a government shutdown that would have serious consequences for the functioning of the Executive and also for its economy.

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks to the press after meeting with his caucus at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., September 30, 2023. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP) (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/)

The Senate was precisely preparing to vote on its own law that also sought to temporarily avoid the closure of the Government, but they will finally vote, predictably in the next few hours, on the law approved in the Chamber.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not yet said when the bill will be voted on, while Republican senators signal it will move forward: “There is growing hope that we can avoid a shutdown,” said the Senate Minority Leader , Mitch McConnell.

Today’s measure, once it is approved by the Senate, will allow the flow of money into government agencies until mid-November and will also maintain funds for recovery from natural disasters, but will not include new funds for Ukraine or for the border.

These two were the points of greatest friction between Democrats and Republicans and finally McCarthy chose to remove them from the game board to gain bipartisan support, despite the rejection of radicals in his party.

From midnight tonight, the public administration would run out of funds and most government agencies, museums and national parks would close, while 1.3 million soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civil servants would stop receiving their salaries.

Furthermore, according to Goldman Sachs, the closure could affect the US economy, reducing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by between 0.15 and 0.2 percentage points for each week it lasts.

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McCarthy tried unsuccessfully on Friday to pass a bill that would have funded the government for another month, until October 31, but which contained limits on asylum programs and cuts to everything except human security. borders.

Democrats, who oppose these provisions at the border, and hard-line Republicans, who reject any measure to keep the Administration operational and follow the instructions of Trump, who this week urged them to resist and provoke a government shutdown.

Many members of the Freedom Caucus opposed McCarthy’s nomination as Republican House majority leader in January and even set conditions for his appointment, including changing the rules so that any Republican could call a vote to fire him.

In June, with the U.S. on the verge of defaulting on its sovereign debt, McCarthy reached a deal with President Joe Biden in which Congress allowed the administration to continue borrowing against its debts, but in exchange for specific limits on government spending. government.

Pro-Trump lawmakers felt betrayed by that deal and are now calling for more cuts. Specifically, they seek to establish a public spending limit of $1.47 billion for the 2024 fiscal year, which represents $120 billion more in cuts than agreed.

Source: Elcomercio