The United States averted a government shutdown on Sept. 30, with the House of Representatives and Senate approving a deal to fund the Government for another 45 days.
A government shutdown almost occurred before the month of October as the House of Representatives failed to pass several appropriations bills to fund the Government’s operations. The Shutdown was averted through legislation that will temporarily fund the Government, which a bipartisan coalition of representatives and senators supported.
“I just signed and sent this short-term stop-gap bill to the White House in order to fund our troops, deliver emergency relief and keep the Government open while Congress gets back to work through regular order,” Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy said in a tweet.
The legislation passed on Saturday, Sept. 30, will continue to fund the government until November. This funding deal is temporary but garnered the support of a large bipartisan majority of those in Congress. While the deal funds and keeps the government open, it does leave out funding for aid to Ukraine, a point of contention that in the end carried little weight.
“The American people expect their government to work,” President Joe Biden said. “Let’s make sure it does.”
Biden signed the legislation, enacting it into law, though he did not involve himself in the struggles over government funding in Congress as much as he did during the debt ceiling crisis.
“Speaker McCarthy made an agreement with House conservatives in January and since then he’s been in brazen, repeated material breach of that agreement,” Republican Representative Matt Gaetz told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “This agreement that he made with Democrats to really blow past a lot of the spending guardrails we set up is a last straw.”
Some more conservative members of Congress opposed the stop-gap legislation because of their more right-wing priorities and opposition to dealing with Democrats. Gaetz filed a motion to vacate the Speaker’s Office on Monday, Oct. 2 in retaliation of Speaker McCarthy working with Democrats to keep the government open.
“Let’s be clear: this isn’t a perfect deal or a permanent solution,” Annie Kuster, new democrat coalition chair and democratic representative, said.
Congress must take up the issue of appropriations again before the 45-day period that began on passage of the stop-gap ends. If Congress does not pass permanent appropriations by that time, a government shutdown seems certain.
“We find ourselves in a dangerous situation; with about 40 days to go before the government shuts down, the House has ground completely to a halt,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “Until Republicans stop their infighting, the House can vote on no bills. No appropriations work can get done.”