US House passes plan to fund government

Washington, Dec 21 (IANS) The US House of Representatives approved funding legislation on Friday to keep the federal government operational until mid-March, just hours before the shutdown deadline at midnight on Saturday.

The bill must now be approved by the Senate before reaching President Joe Biden for his signature.

The House legislation did not contain a clause demanded by President-elect Donald Trump to extend the national debt limit, which funds approved expenditures and not fresh ones, which had triggered a revolt by hardline conservative Republican lawmakers, 38 of whom voted against an earlier version of the measure on Thursday, bringing it down, along with Democrats.

The Friday measure passed with 366 in favour, which included all Democrats and 34 again, all of whom were Republicans.

After the end of the fiscal year on September 30, congress passed a legislation funding the federal government for the next three months, which was set to end at 12:01 am Saturday, triggering a shutdown of the federal government.

The US was confronted with the possibility of a shutdown after President-elect Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, a close ally, came out against a spending measure to fund the government until mid-March that the Republicans had worked with on Democrats. They opposed some spending heads that were put in the bill by Democrats. Additionally, Trump demanded the extension of the debt ceiling.

Speaker Mike Johnson was forced to abandon the legislation and work on a new plan, which he tabled for discussion and vote on Thursday. It failed spectacularly — 174 in favour and 235 — with 38 Republican lawmakers voting against it, along with all Democrats, in a stark show of revolt against the president-elect.

A shutdown would have shut down most of the federal government, but not all. Exceptions are made for “essential” services such as law enforcement and air traffic controllers and those that are fee-funded such as visa services of the State Department and certain operations of the Citizenship and immigration department.

Essential services workers will not be paid, however, till a spending bill is approved by Congress. All other employees will be forced to stay home without pay.

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