US Congress averts govt shutdown ahead of holidays after Senate votes in favour of stopgap funding bill

The United States Congress approved a stopgap funding bill in a rare show of cross-party unity to avert a government shutdown, for now. This comes after the US Senate passed a stopgap spending bill, on Wednesday (Nov 15) and sent it to President Joe Biden to sign into law ahead of the weekend deadline.

What happened in the Senate?

The Senate vote came a day after the House of Representatives passed a stopgap spending bill aimed at averting the holiday-season government shutdown.

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However, the threat of a government shutdown isn’t completely averted as the bill would only keep federal agencies running for another two months but did stop the damage which would affect millions of workers ahead of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The 87-11 vote in the Senate marked the end of this year’s third fiscal standoff in Congress three days ahead of the Friday night deadline. The resolution will now keep the US government funded through mid-January.

“No drama, no delay, no government shutdown,” said Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ahead of the vote.

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The US Congress has faced months of chaos which has repeatedly brought Washington to the brink of defaulting on its more than $31 trillion in debt, not to mention the looming threat of a partial shutdown that would have interrupted pay for about four million federal workers.

The last-ditch “continuing resolution (CR)” was pitched by new House Speaker Mike Johnson and drew broad bipartisan support, a rarity, given that choosing a new speaker was not smooth and the lower chamber of the US Congress was left paralysed for weeks.

Johnson assumed the post after the far-right within the Republican Party ousted Kevin McCarthy.

What now?

The stopgap funding bill would now be sent to Biden to be signed into law which would extend funding for military construction, veterans benefits, transportation, housing, urban development, agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and energy and water programs through January 19.

Meanwhile, the funding for all other federal operations, including the US defence, would expire on February 2.

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Notably, budget votes which provide funding to keep the government operating – Congress’ most essential function – regularly turn into a standoff between the parties who use the prospect of a shutdown to seek concessions from the other.

“At this point, it’s important for the Congress to come together, Democrats and Republicans, on a bipartisan path forward to fully funding the government,” Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters.

“It should be obvious to anyone who is watching that House Republicans are unable to govern on their own,” he added.

This comes as hardline members of the Republican party which hold a majority in the US House voiced anger at the recent compromise and said they would try to rein in federal spending again when current funding expires.

(With inputs from agencies)