Congress Passes Funding Bill to Avoid US Government Shutdown
The United States Senate passed a bipartisan bill on Saturday evening, just three hours before the midnight deadline, to prevent a government shutdown.
The bill, which received overwhelming support with a vote of 88 to 9, funds the government for the next 45 days, until November 17.
In a late Saturday post on X (formerly Twitter), President Joe Biden revealed that he has signed the bill into law.
"Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans," Biden said in a statement after the passage.
He also commended the bipartisan majorities in both the House and the Senate for averting an unnecessary crisis.
All Democratic senators voted in favor of the measure, while the nine opposing votes came from Republicans.
Earlier in the day, the House passed the bill by a margin of 335 to 91, following House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's decision to seek Democratic support for the short-term funding bill.
Ultimately, the bill received more support from Democrats than Republicans in the House, with 90 Republicans voting against it while only one Democrat opposed it.
It is worth noting that the funding for Ukraine was absent from the bill, a provision sought by Democrats but opposed by many Republicans. However, the bill does include funding for disaster relief.
McCarthy had to rely on Democratic votes for passage due to opposition from the hard-right faction within his party.
To secure approval, the speaker implemented a voting process requiring a two-thirds supermajority, equivalent to about 290 votes in the 435-member House.
Prior to the vote, McCarthy emphasized the high cost of a government
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