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The US Congress has voted to avert a government shutdown, after lawmakers agreed to a last-minute measure that keeps the government funded until mid-November but excludes billions of dollars of aid for Ukraine.
The Senate approved the deal with a vote of 88-9 on Saturday night, following the earlier consensus reached by the House of Representatives, with nine Republicans voting against the bill in the upper chamber.
Before a midnight deadline, President Joe Biden is expected to sign the agreement, avoiding a shutdown that would have impacted hundreds of thousands of workers and halted basic government functions.
This agreement represents a sharp reversal in Washington, where a shutdown seemed inevitable just one day earlier.
On Saturday, the House voted 335-91 in favor of the deal, extending government funding at current levels for another 45 days and deferring the risk of a shutdown until mid-November.
Almost all Democratic House members, along with the majority of Republicans, supported the measure, while 90 Republicans broke with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, opposing the deal.
In a post-Senate vote statement, President Biden commended the stop-gap measure for “preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans”. He criticized “extreme” House Republicans who opposed funding.
Biden emphasized the importance of continued support for Ukraine, demanding that McCarthy “keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment”.
Prior to the vote, Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, announced that he and Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, had agreed to “continue fighting for more economic and security aid for Ukraine”.
While many House Republicans have been hesitant to provide additional support for Kyiv, McConnell has remained steadfast in his support for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
McConnell stated on Saturday night that “most Senate Republicans remain committed to helping our friends on the front lines” and expressed confidence that the Senate would pass “further urgent assistance to Ukraine later this year”.
The rebellion witnessed in the House vote on Saturday, which saw 21 Republican rebels vote against a different stop-gap funding proposal from McCarthy, raises questions about the strength of McCarthy’s speakership.
Several staunch members of the Republican conference, including Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, have hinted at bringing a “motion to vacate”, or vote of no confidence, against the Speaker.
“If somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it,” McCarthy told reporters after Saturday’s vote. “There has to be an adult in the room. I am going to govern with what is best for this country.”
A shutdown seemed almost inevitable on Friday night when 21 Republican rebels voted against McCarthy’s proposed funding measure. House Democrats also opposed the measure due to the inclusion of significant budget cuts.
However, on Saturday, McCarthy made a new offer to continue funding the government at current levels for another 45 days.
Explaining his reasoning after the vote, McCarthy stated that members of the Republican conference had been advocating for a shutdown that would have resulted in unpaid troops.
“I don’t want to be a part of that team,” the Speaker declared. “I want to be a part of a conservative group that wants to get things done.”
In a moment of drama on Saturday in the House, Democratic congressman from New York Jamaal Bowman apparently triggered a fire alarm in a congressional office building as lawmakers were gathering to vote.
Bowman’s chief of staff later stated that the congressman “did not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote” and expressed regrets over any confusion caused. McCarthy deemed Bowman’s actions “serious” and insisted that they should not go unpunished.
Democrats attributed the shutdown threat to Republicans, pointing to the small but influential minority of hardliners in the House who hindered several proposed compromise agreements in recent days.
A White House official hailed the House vote on Saturday as a “big victory on funding levels and keeping the government open” for Biden, highlighting the Republicans’ reversal of their demand for significant spending cuts. The official expressed full expectations that McCarthy would promptly bring forward a separate Ukraine funding bill.
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