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US House approves bill hours before government shutdown deadline: What happens next?
If senators drag their feet, the government will still cease to be funded at midnight, and non-essential operations will start to grind to a halt.
The US House of Representatives managed to avoid a government shutdown at the last minute on Friday, passing a funding bill just hours before the midnight deadline. Republicans and Democrats came together to approve the plan, which keeps the government running until mid-March.
Now, it’s up to the Senate to act before the clock strikes midnight (0500 GMT). If they don’t, federal agencies will start shutting down, news agency AFP reported.
Even though the House is controlled by Republicans, the bill saw significant bipartisan support, with 34 Republican backbenchers stepping in to help push it through.
"Today, Democrats stood firm in our commitment to collaboration, not division. The American people deserve a government that works for them," senior Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson posted on X.
If senators drag their feet, the government will still cease to be funded at midnight, and non-essential operations will start to grind to a halt, with up to 875,000 workers furloughed and 1.4 million more required to work without pay.
The 366-to-34 House vote Friday evening sends the legislation to the Senate, where Republicans Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said they expect the stopgap to pass this evening. US President Joe Biden will sign the measure into law, according to a White House statement.
The US government moved ahead with shutdown preparations on Friday, notifying federal workers earlier in the day they might be furloughed, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. While key services such as law enforcement, air traffic control and airport screening would continue during a shutdown, the workers would temporarily go without pay, reported Bloomberg.
The late turmoil over a short-term spending package that had been expected to be relatively drama-free vividly demonstrated President-elect Donald Trump’s power over fellow Republicans and its limits.
Republican lawmakers quickly abandoned a bipartisan deal Johnson had carefully negotiated after Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk attacked it in social media posts on Wednesday. But then a new funding package tailored to meet Trump’s demand that the national debt limit be waived or raised before the president-elect takes office failed when 38 Republican conservatives refused to go along, it added.
Along with keeping open the government, the funding package includes more than $100 billion in aid for natural disaster victims and farmers.
Elon Musk publicly backed the funding package as the House began voting.
“The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances,” Musk said on his social media platform X. “It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces.”
Johnson said on his way into the chamber to vote that he had a “great” conversation with Musk shortly beforehand.
