The Capitol in Washington, December 15, 2012 (AFP/Archives/Mandel NGAN)
The US Senate adopted a text on Thursday providing for the financing of federal services until December 23, after the House of Representatives which had done the same on Wednesday, thus pushing back for a week the specter of a paralysis of the federal state, the famous “shutdown”.
The senators voted in favor of this finance law with 71 votes for and 19 against. This law still needs to be signed into law by President Joe Biden to come into effect.
Congress is thus giving itself an extra week to negotiate a longer-term agreement to cover the end of the 2023 fiscal year.
Parliamentarians had until Friday midnight to reach an agreement, failing which all funding for federal services would have been suddenly cut.
Ministries but also national parks, certain museums and a multitude of organizations would have been affected, forcing hundreds of thousands of employees into technical unemployment.
The winter 2018 “shutdown”, the longest to date, had notably affected baggage screening at airports.
Despite the strong partisan divisions, most elected officials on both sides do not want this situation, which risks creating chaos before the holidays.
© 2022 AFP
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