Biden signs government funding bill to avoid shutdown before midterms

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, has signed this Friday afternoon a government funding bill after it was approved in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, thus avoiding a shutdown of the Executive that would have lasted until after the congressional elections.

The law has been approved this Friday in the US Lower House by 230 votes in favor and 201 against, thus keeping the offices of the Federal Government operational at least until December 16, 2022.

In the United States, the government shuts down when one or both houses of Parliament cannot resolve disagreements over budget appropriations before the end of the existing budget cycle, as in this case.

On this occasion, the government shutdown would have lasted six weeks, since both chambers are scheduled to close for the mid-term elections — which are scheduled for next November 8 — so it would have had to wait until after the composition of the chambers to bring the budget bill forward.

The measure approved Friday gives Congress more leeway to debate and negotiate a funding bill for next year that includes another series of legislative proposals on defense and new changes to election laws to avoid, according to Democrats, episodes like those of January 6, 2021, when a mob of supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.

The bill approved by Congress also includes a budget item of an additional 12 billion dollars (a similar figure in euros) to support Ukraine in the war against Russia, in addition to others for the assistance of Afghan refugees and for improvements in the security of courts across the country, details NBC.

The direction of the Republican vote has gone different ways depending on whether it was cast in the House of Representatives or in the Senate. In the former, its leader, Kevin McCarthy, urged his followers to reject the proposal, while in the Upper House, the vote resulted in 72 votes in favor and 25 against.