The United States has been struggling for several months with the adoption of a finance law for the year 2024. But a new agreement in principle was reached, Wednesday, February 28, between the Democratic and Republican leaders of the American Congress to extend the federal state budget for a few days and avoid the much-feared paralysis.
Entangled in partisan disputes, which led to the dismissal in the fall of Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, Congress is currently only capable of adopting a series of mini-laws to extend the budget of the ‘Federal state of a few days, or a few months.
As soon as one of these mini-budgets is about to expire, as one of them should be on Friday, there is a risk that the federal administration will be partially shut down, what the Americans call the shutdown. The list of potential consequences is long: unpaid air traffic controllers, shut down administrations, frozen food aid, unmaintained national parks, etc.
A budget extended until March 22
Wednesday’s deal extends part of the current budget by one week to March 8 and another part to March 22, congressional officials said in a statement. It must now be adopted in the House of Representatives, in the Senate before Friday, then be promulgated by the American president, Joe Biden, to repel the threat of paralysis.
The latter summoned the leaders on Tuesday in the hope of pushing them to find an agreement. “As the President and congressional leaders made clear at yesterday’s meeting, we cannot allow a government shutdown”declared Karine Jean-Pierre, the spokesperson for the White House, on Wednesday.
Congress must now attempt to pass legislation to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. But there are no immediate plans to approve $95 billion in emergency national security funds for Ukraine, Israel and other allies, which faces strong opposition Republican.