The United States House of Representatives approved this Tuesday a new budget extension with the aim of avoiding an administrative closure due to lack of funds, known as “shutdown”, which would happen on Friday night.
The budget project was approved with 336 in favor and 95 againstthus achieving the two-thirds majority that was required.
Although it was promoted by the Republican leadership in that chamber, it received almost unanimous support from the Democrats but only from 127 of the 220 conservative legislators.
“Once again, the Republican majority needs the votes of Democrats to govern,” Democrat Rosa DeLauro said during the debate.
With the approval of the Lower House, which was the biggest obstacle, this budget extension now goes to Senate, controlled by progressives and where both Republicans and Democrats have already indicated their majority support.
The budget extension project was presented this Saturday by the new president of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, with two different expiration dates – January 19 and February 2 – that should allow legislators to negotiate in time the 2024 accounts.
This would be the second extension of the 2023 budget after the one approved on September 30 and which cost the then president of the Lower House the dismissal, Kevin McCarthy, pushed by a group of his own legislators.
No one in the Republican ranks is now considering overthrowing Johnson for promoting a measure very similar to McCarthy’s, but the vote against his proposal by 93 legislators shows that conservatives remain divided.
“It will be very frustrating and it really goes against everything we have been fighting for,” said legislator Andrew Ogles, of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus, with the prospect of approving the extension.
Some Republicans are frustrated that their majority in the House is not serving to promote the budget cuts they crave.. For their part, the Democrats have preferred to keep the Government functioning rather than exploit the internal Republican division, but they have regretted that the extension further distances the approval of new military aid to Ukraine and Israel.
“Any extension must have the 2023 spending level, be free of harmful cuts and free of far-right political clauses. Today’s extension before the House meets that criterion and we will support it,” the Democratic leaders said in a statement. .
In case of “shutdown” Nearly two million people would stop receiving their salaries – the majority will recover the money retroactively – and although many of them would stop working, many others, such as the military or airport workers, would be obliged to continue complying.
The lack of funds would cause all kinds of problems and headaches for the Administration, from the closure of museums and national parks to the suspension of food health inspections or the interruption of scientific research programs.
The last “shutdown” occurred during the Presidency of Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021) and was, with 35 days (from December 22, 2018 to January 29, 2019), the longest in history.
EFE
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