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The interim financing bill arrived at his office hours before the deadline.
On Thursday evening, President Joe Biden signed a deal that the House and Senate passed earlier today to avoid a government shutdown that would have hit hundreds of thousands of federal workers and slammed an economy that is still struggling to survive. recover from the pandemic, all with just a few hours left to avert a crisis.
As part of the deal, announced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senators waived a handful of Republican amendments and then approved, 65-35, a temporary funding bill that not only avoids a shutdown until Dec. 3, but also includes $ 28.6 billion in disaster assistance to states ravaged by extreme weather conditions and $ 6.3 billion to further aid Afghan refugees.
The House passed the Senate version of the interim measure later Thursday afternoon, 254-175, just hours before the government technically ran out of cash by the end of the day on Thursday.
According to the White House, HR 5305 – the Extending Government Funding and Provision of Emergency Assistance Act – “provides fiscal year 2022 appropriations to federal agencies through Dec. 3.”
The bill does not include any provisions to raise the national debt ceiling, after Republicans strongly rejected any attempt to include it.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell continued to insist his lecture would not help increase the borrowing limit – or even speed up Democrats’ ability to do it on their own – citing concerns about the majority party’s intention to spend trillions in new social and climate policy spending. This is despite an increase in the debt ceiling paying past bipartite debt.
“What Republicans have presented from the start was a clean, ongoing resolution without the poison pill of raising the debt limit,” McConnell said. “This is exactly what we are going to go through today.”
He said Democrats “accept the reality”, proposing a continuing “clean” resolution to fund the government, and that “the same will have to happen on the debt limit.”
Schumer said Republicans realized a shutdown would be “catastrophic” and “they should realize that a national debt default would be even worse.”
He said the GOP spent the week “solidifying as the party by default”.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned of “calamity” for the economy and average Americans unless the debt ceiling is raised before Oct. 18.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Noted the irony of Republicans refusing to increase the borrowing limit but then voting to approve billions in new spending.
“If there is no money in the treasury to pay for these items, what good is it?” »Asked Léahy.
McConnell, for his part, condemned Democrats for not including $ 1 billion in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system. Democrats in the House balked at funding and the measure was scrapped in that chamber. But a majority of Democrats in both chambers have said they intend to approve funding for a key US ally at a later date.
Justin Gomez of ABC News contributed to this report.
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