The United States House of Representatives made a significant decision on Wednesday as the House adopted a short-term budget bill in order to put a pause on a government shutdown. The decision made by Hose has now postponed the funding deadline from Friday to next week.
As the deadline is extended and changed to December 23, this will ensure the smooth running of the federal services until the date. The voting in the House came out with a result of 224-210.
There were nine Republicans who cast their votes joining the Democrats. The text of the bill, which is known as a continuing resolution, was unveiled by House Democrats.
The bill which is passed by the House of Representatives will now be sent to the Senate. From there, the bill must be sent to President Biden’s table before Friday midnight in order to avoid the shutdown.
The passing of the bill ensures the smooth running of the government until December 23. If this fails in delivering, then all the funding for federal services will be stopped, which in turn will stop all the operations across government platforms.
As the deadline gets postponed to next week, this time can be used by Congress to make a compromise.
Out of the elected Republican representatives, members like Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, Chris Jacobs, Anthony Gonzalez, John Katko, Jaime Herrera Beutler, Fred Upton, Steve Womack, and Brian Fitzpatrick voted with the democrats and supported the measures.
The urgency to secure the funding by the members of Congress arises from the consequences that can come from it. Not only does it affect government departures and also other federal buildings, but it can also have a negative effect on institutions like national parks, and also some other museums.
This can lead to situations where workers can lose their job based on the economic crisis. The number of workers that will be affected can be more than hundreds.
As the holiday season approaches, a majority of the members of the House opt for avoiding a shutdown and they don’t want to bring the risk of causing chaos and difficulty in the life of citizens and also in the functioning of government departments.
The officials are trying their best to stop history from repeating itself and the 2018-2019 winter shutdown from happening again.
The winter shutdown of 2018 – 2019 was the biggest in the history of the United States. The shutdown happened when then-president Donald Trump and the United States Congress failed to arrive at an agreement regarding the appropriation bill to fund the procedures and operations of the government for the 2019 fiscal year.
The disagreement led to the closing down of around nine executive departments, fully or partially. This also affected around 800,000 employees. While some of the employees had to leave their job due to the crisis, some of them had to work without getting paid.
The Republican House was strong in its opposition to the extension.
According to their argument, the extension will grant Congress the to pass a spending bill that can be massive before a Republican majority will take charge of the House.
In his statement, representative Kevin McCarthy said to allow the American people to do what they said a month ago – that is to change Washington as we know it today. Even though Republicans hold the majority in the House, the majority in the Senate was gained by Democrats as they gained one seat. The number is 51 – 49.
Even though there are arguments to shut down and stop the extension, the Republican members of the Senate are aware of the fact that stopping the extension has a greater possibility of leading to a shutdown. They are also afraid that the GOP would be put to blame if the situation led up to that.
According to Senator Mitch McConnel, who is a Republican in the Senate, allowing Congress to pass a full-year spending bill will be better if it provides the opportunity for a larger increase in spending for defense.
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Representative Rosa DeLauro, who is the Democratic Chair of the Appropriation Committee, asked her colleagues to vote in favor of the extension. According to her argument, if the final spending bill is negotiated it will definitely help the nation and also ensure the safety that everyone deserves.
It should also be noted that the President has asked the lawmakers for a sum of $40 billion for Ukraine as the country is facing an ongoing war with Russia.
An additional $10 billion was also demanded to build the defense against dangerous pandemics like COVID -19 and other such deadly infectious diseases.
Some House Republicans have expressed their dissatisfaction with providing financial aid to Ukraine and some GOP lawmakers are also against funding related to issues like the pandemic.
Despite the strong partisan divisions, the majority of the elected officials are trying to avoid another shutdown before the holidays.
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