But this move still has to be approved in the Senate, where many Republicans are waving to cause a “shutdown”, in protest of President Joe Biden’s administration’s imposition of mandatory vaccines on some groups.
The US House of Representatives approved the government funding bill, starting from Saturday, December 4, until February 18, and avoiding stopping work in federal institutions.
And expires Friday evening, the deadline before the US Congress to reach an agreement on the budget that would prevent the occurrence of the closure of federal institutions.
The threat of the closure of US federal institutions cast a shadow over the political scene in the country, during the past days, after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on the budget, until Friday evening only, before government funding was cut off.
And during the government shutdown in 2018-2019, which was the longest in US history, and lasted about five weeks, the security scans of baggage at airports were paralyzed.
Despite deep partisan divisions, a majority of lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, are hoping to avoid a repeat of that scenario that could wreak havoc before the holidays.
However, a few Republicans, most of them supporters of former President Donald Trump, refuse to agree to the budget and consider that it would contribute to the mandatory vaccination requested by President Joe Biden.
Members of the more hard-line bloc in the House of Representatives asked their colleagues in the Senate to “use all available procedural methods to prevent the passage” of any approval of a budget that would finance or impose mandatory vaccinations.
And many Democrats expressed dismay over the deadlock in Congress, especially with the confirmation of the first case of the mutant Omicron of the Corona virus in the United States.
The cost of a week to close the US economy may reach $ 6 billion, according to a report by the Oxford Economics Group.
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