- The feared standstill of government business in the USA appears to have been averted.
- Members of the US House of Representatives approved a draft interim budget bill with more than the required two-thirds majority.
- Without approval, employees in parts of the public administration, among others, would no longer have received their salaries from Saturday.
The Senate, the other chamber of the US Congress, must now approve the proposal. This is considered a formality because the Democrats have a majority in the Senate and had already commented positively on the draft. The Republican leadership there has also already signaled its approval. A vote is expected later this week. After that, President Joe Biden still has to sign the draft.
Federal authorities funded until the beginning of 2024
However, the draft excludes the billions in support for Israel and Ukraine requested by Biden, as well as new money for the US border protection with Mexico. These points would have to be decided separately later, just like a regular budget with a longer term. 336 members of the House of Representatives voted for the draft, 95 parliamentarians rejected it. The bill calls for some government operations and federal agencies to be funded until January 19th and others until February 2nd.
The newly elected Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, introduced the bill last week. 93 of his party colleagues rejected the proposal because they wanted to categorically prevent the increase in some expenditure items it contained. Only 127 Republicans voted for it. The draft was only successful with the votes of 209 Democrats, two Democrats voted against it.
The political wrangling over the US budget repeats itself every year – usually Congress makes do with passing an interim budget and then fights again a few months later over the financing of government operations.