The US Senate agreed on Tuesday on a bill to temporarily finance the government. 77 senators voted for the budget bill, 19 voted against it. This is the first step to prevent federal institutions from closing. Without an agreement by midnight on Saturday, the federal government will run out of money. Facilities would have to close and civil servants would not receive salaries.
The budget draft approved in the Senate plans to provide the government with around six billion US dollars for disaster relief in the country and a further six billion US dollars for Ukraine by November 17th.
In order to finally avert the shutdown, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives must approve the draft. However, lawmakers in the House of Representatives plan to push forward their own partisan bill.
The highest-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, had already reached an agreement with US President Joe Biden in May on spending for the fiscal year from October 1st. However, arch-conservative Republicans from the House Freedom Caucus group are now rejecting this and are demanding cuts of $120 billion. The sum seems comparatively small compared to a total budget of 6.4 trillion dollars. However, access to abortions is to be made more difficult, climate measures are to be reversed and the construction of the wall with Mexico is to be resumed – a central project of the Republican former President Donald Trump, who wants to be re-elected next year.
In the USA, not only the president, but also the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will be re-elected in November 2024. Politically, it is also about who is to blame in a shutdown. If the moderate Republicans in the House of Representatives, with the help of the Democrats, accept a bill from the Senate, it could lead to an open power struggle among the Republicans in the chamber.