Shutdown averted
Biden signs budget law
March 23, 2024, 7:14 p.m
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The US Congress continues to argue violently over the budget. After tough negotiations, President Biden’s signature ensures the continuation of government business until September. A compromise avoids drastic cuts that Republicans have demanded.
US President Joe Biden has signed the budget package negotiated in Congress, thus averting a standstill in government business. The White House announced this. The law will finance government business in the current financial year until the end of September.
The US Congress passed the trillion-dollar package with a vote in the Senate on Saturday night (local time). Theoretically, the deadline for a shutdown has already passed at midnight US Eastern Time – but in practice there has been no standstill in government business. The White House had ordered agencies to continue operating as passage of a budget bill was underway.
The now passed 1.2 trillion US dollar (around 1.1 trillion euros) budget package finances a large part of the US government’s business. “This agreement represents a compromise, meaning neither side got everything it wanted,” Biden said. But the “extreme cuts” in the budget that Republicans had demanded did not come through. Biden simultaneously urged Congress to pass new aid for Ukraine and a migration law to protect the border. “It’s time to get this done,” Biden said.
The budget package contains, among other things, funds for defense, the Ministry of Homeland Security and the Ministry of Labor – but it does not include new financial aid from the USA for Ukraine. A corresponding legislative package is currently stuck in the House of Representatives. The budget that has now been passed also continues to suspend funding for the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA.
Most recently, Israeli allegations that individual employees of the UN organization could have been involved in the massacre by the Islamist Hamas in Israel on October 7th led to the withdrawal of international aid funds. Several Western countries then temporarily stopped payments to UNRWA, including the USA.