US Congress passes bill to avoid government shutdown
21 December 2024, 00:32 | Updated: 21 December 2024, 07:04
Both houses of the US Congress have passed a funding bill to avert an 11th-hour shutdown of the federal government.
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The House of Representatives and the Senate needed to approve the legislation to ensure the government remained funded beyond midnight on Friday.
The bill extends funding for the government until March 14 but does not raise the debt ceiling, defying President-elect Donald Trump's demand to greenlight trillions of dollars in new debt.
The White House has confirmed President Joe Biden will now sign it into law.
The House rejected a short-term funding bill that Republicans put forward to prevent the federal government running out of cash on Thursday night.
The proposal needed two-thirds of House Representatives to pass but failed to reach that number after 38 Republicans went against the party and blocked the bill.
Mr Trump ended the possibility of a previously agreed bipartisan funding deal first proposed by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson being passed.
Trump, alongside his billionaire ally Elon Musk, was extremely vocal in their criticism of the original proposal.
A later version tied government funding to a suspension of the federal debt limit.
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Elon Musk’s involvement the potential shutdown can not be overstated.
The billionaire took to his social media platform X on Wednesday to brand Johnson’s bipartisan proposal “criminal.”
Musk said any lawmaker "who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years".“
Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025,” Trump and incoming vice-president J.D Vance said in a statement.
“The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”
