Washington DC, United States
Hours after the US Congress passed the stopgap bill, President Joe Biden signed the bill and averted the government shutdown just before the funding for federal agencies was about to run out, said the White House, in a statement.
"I just signed a law to keep the government open for 47 days. There’s plenty of time to pass Government funding bills for the next fiscal year, and I strongly urge Congress to get to work right away. The American people expect their government to work. Let’s make sure it does," said Biden in a post on X. He also posted a photo of the signing of the bill.
I just signed a law to keep the government open for 47 days. There’s plenty of time to pass Government funding bills for the next fiscal year, and I strongly urge Congress to get to work right away.
The American people expect their government to work.
Let’s make sure it does. pic.twitter.com/ffjwUIPWIt
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 1, 2023
In the 11th hour, the US Congress passed the government funding bill on Saturday (Sep 30) to ensure that the federal agencies continue running for the next 45 days and averted a costly shutdown. However, the deal did not include aid to war-torn Ukraine, which was requested by President Joe Biden.
With three hours left before midnight Saturday deadline, the Senate voted in favour of a resolution, which had advanced earlier from the House of Representatives to continue government funding through mid-November.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pitched the last-ditch "continuing resolution" as government functions from federal policymaking to military operations to food aid stood on the verge of getting upended and the future of millions of public workers remained uncertain.
Ukraine aid needs to be passed after shutdown deal: Biden
Welcoming the deal which averted a government shutdown on Saturday (Sep 30), US President Joe Biden appealed to Congress to swiftly give approval to Ukraine aid which was left out of the agreement.
"Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans," said Biden, in a statement.
Tonight, Congress voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans.
This is good news, but I want to be clear: we should never have been in this position in the first place. pic.twitter.com/U28kaX11Rq
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 1, 2023
"We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted. I fully expect the Speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment," he said while speaking about Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy.
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The US lawmakers should now wrangle on a separate bill which will provide Ukraine with military assistance of $24 billion that Biden was appealing in the budget, with voting likely to be held early next week.
The hardline Republicans, who defied their own party leadership and continued pressing for deep spending cuts while rejecting temporary funding proposals, triggered the shutdown crisis.
The group of 21 hardliners had said that they would remove McCarthy as speaker if the House passed a stopgap measure they opposed with the support of Democrats.
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One of the group Republicans, Lauren Boebert said, “There are too many members here who are comfortable doing things the way they've been done since the mid-90s. And that's why we're sitting at $33 trillion in debt."
Meanwhile, McCarthy said, "In 45 days we should get our work all done," while offering a hand to the hardliners, and stating, "I welcome those 21 back in."
(With inputs from agencies)
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