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The US House of Representatives passed a short-term spending bill on Thursday that will avert a partial government shutdown and free up lawmakers to focus on more contentious negotiations over aid to Ukraine.
Passage in the House came after the Senate overwhelmingly approved the bill earlier on Thursday. The bill will now go to President Joe Biden for his signature, extending government spending at current levels for some federal agencies until March 1 and others until March 8.
“It’s good news for every American, especially our veterans, parents and children, farmers and small businesses, all of whom would have felt the sting of a shutdown,” wrote Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, after the vote.
The short-term spending bill gives Capitol Hill leaders time to work out a more permanent funding solution built around a $1.66tn spending deal reached earlier this month. That agreement on a top-line figure marked a rare breakthrough in a Congress that has been riven by partisan warfare for months, but the leaders still have not hammered out the details.
Without a contentious battle over keeping the government open, congressional leaders now hope negotiations can resume to craft a compromise on additional funding for Ukraine. Washington’s inability to send more military aid to Kyiv has alarmed western officials and was the subject of a rare White House meeting between Biden and congressional leaders earlier this week.
In order to win support of Republicans, a military assistance package is expected to include measures to curb immigration at the US border with Mexico. Speaking on Thursday before a trip to North Carolina, Biden warned of a “disaster” if no deal was reached.
“I think the vast majority of members of Congress support aid to Ukraine. The question is whether or not a small minority are going to hold it up, which would be a disaster,” he said.
Thursday’s move to hold a House vote to keep the government open carries risks for House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Republican leader who struck the deal with Schumer. Like his predecessor Kevin McCarthy, Johnson could now face a backlash from rightwing members of his party.
“Americans did not give Republicans a majority in the House to continue Nancy Pelosi’s inflationary spending and Joe Biden’s failed policies,” wrote the far-right House Freedom Caucus in a statement. “Unfortunately, that’s precisely what has been proposed in order to buy time — incredibly — to pass full-year appropriations that increase Pelosi’s spending and likely preserve Biden’s policies.”
McCarthy lost the speakership last year after he struck a similar deal with Democrats to keep the government funded, prompting a rebellion from a small band of hardline Republican House members.
Many of the House Republicans who were willing to shut down the government over federal spending are also sceptical about any deal with Democrats on the border and Ukraine.
Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination, opposes more Ukraine aid and has urged Republicans to oppose any deal.
“I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, but soon to be great again, Country,” wrote Trump on Truth Social this week.