US Senate gives final approval to one-week budget extension and avoids ‘standstill’

He United States Senate gave the final yes to the one-week budget extension agreed on Wednesday between Republicans and Democrats, hours before part of the funds available to finance the Government expired this Friday.

By 77 votes in favor and 13 against, the US Senate finally approved the bill and all that remains is the president’s endorsement, Joe Bidenwhat should happen in the next few hours.

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“What we did today was overcome the opposition of the extreme right“, noted shortly before the vote the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer. It was possible to avoid the closure of the Government”without capitulating to extremists” he added.

The vote in the Senate took place a few hours after the House of Representatives did the same and said yes to the project, which received 320 votes in favor and 99 against.

Almost half of the Republican congressmen who voted – 97 out of 210 – voted against the budget project agreed between their leaders and the Democratic party in power.

Current resources finance some federal agencies until March 1st and others until March 8th, while the approved project extends the first date until March 8th and the second until March 22nd.

Congress has approved successive budget extensions – this is the fourth – since the beginning of the current fiscal year, on October 1, 2023, now five months ago.

Almost all of them were approved until resources were exhausted, which would cause an administrative closure orto switch off‘.

In parallel with the approval of the extensions, the two parties are negotiating budgets for the 2024 fiscal year, which runs until September 30.

In fact, it is planned that on March 11th the The White House make public their requests for the fiscal year 2025 budget, when Congress has not even approved the 2024 budget.

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Every time there is less than a week left before an administrative closure, the White House activates a protocol to prepare all its departments.

A government shutdown would mean sending hundreds of thousands of public employees home without work or pay, and the paralysis of a multitude of services.

The last closure of this type occurred during the Republican Presidency donald trump (2017-2021) and was, at 35 days (from December 22, 2018 to January 29, 2019), the longest in history during the Christmas holidays.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.