President Joe Biden signed the text approved last night by the US House and Senate, which avoided the shutdown, that is, the closure of all government activities due to lack of financial coverage. The law is valid for a month and a half, within which a new financing measure must be defined. “Congress voted to keep the government open, avoiding an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted unnecessary suffering on millions of American workers. This is good news, but I want to be clear: we should never have found ourselves in this position in the first place,” the president wrote in a note, commenting on the surprising last-minute bipartisan agreement.
The agreement allowed the Republican leadership of the United States House to put – at least for now – the extremist wing of the party on the corner and pass a bill that prevented almost 4 million people from being kept at home – including employees and military – creating huge disruptions and looming recession. The turning point occurred with Democratic support for the text presented by Republican President Kevin McCarthy, which provided for a spending law that excluded financing for Ukraine. A document contested by the extreme wing of the Republican Party, dominated by controversial figures close to former President Trump, which pointed to closure with an obvious attempt to put the White House in difficulties.
Faced with the risk of rejecting McCarthy’s text, which would also have called his role into question, risking handing over the party to the most extremist component, the Democrats decided to support him, and so the law was approved in the Chamber by 335 votes to 91: the package then reached the Senate, where Republicans had already defined a bipartisan version of the law. After a procedural tug of war (Democratic Senator Michael Bennet opposed the vote on a text without funding for Ukraine), in the end, just hours before midnight, the Senate also approved the 71-page bill, presented shortly before the start of the debate in the Chamber. As White House sources explained, President Joe Biden believed that the text approved by the House would not cut spending, would not present restrictive border policies and would contain important aid in case of disasters and other provisions. As for aid to Kiev, the same source explained that the White House expects a follow-up bill on Ukraine to pass both houses. Washington will not abandon Kiev.
Source: IL Tempo

John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.