The US House of Representatives approved a stopgap plan Tuesday to avert a government shutdown that would pile more pain on the economic chaos marring President Donald Trump’s early weeks in office.
The Republican-led chamber agreed in a largely party-line vote to keep the government funded through September 30 — giving Trump the summer months to steer his agenda of tax cuts, mass deportations and boosted energy production through Congress.
The drama now moves to the Republican-led Senate, which needs to provide its own rubber stamp before Friday night’s midnight shutdown deadline.
But the bill needs Democratic votes and is on a knife edge.
“Now it’s decision time for Senate Democrats: cast a vote to keep the government open or be responsible for shutting it down,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, laying down the gauntlet for the upper chamber minority.
Passing the first hurdle marks a big win for Johnson, who had to sell the package to backbenchers skeptical of stopgaps — known as continuing resolutions (CRs) — which mostly freeze spending rather than making cuts.
The threat of a weekend shutdown comes with Wall Street reeling from Trump’s trade war and radical cuts to federal spending that have seen tens of thousands of layoffs.
Traders had initially reacted with optimism to the Republican billionaire’s election, but growing fears that his tariffs will reignite inflation and spark a recession have led to a three-week market sell-off.
If the Senate fails to follow the House, there will be more economic misery as the government grinds to a halt, potentially leading to tens of thousands of public employees being furloughed as federal agencies shutter.
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Senate Democrats are mostly opposed to the 99-page CR, which would drop domestic spending by about $13 billion while increasing defense spending by about $6 billion.
Republicans call it a “clean” CR, but critics counter that it is full of partisan ideological add-ons that make it a non-starter.
Among the most contentious is a provision surrendering congressional authority to block any Trump tariffs imposed under emergency economic powers. That authority allows any member to force a vote to terminate the levies.
– ‘Slush Fund’ –
There are cuts totalling billions of dollars from a program for veterans exposed to Agent Orange and toxic burn pits, as well as from research into medical conditions from cancer and Alzheimer’s to heart disease.
There are also economies running to hundreds of millions of dollars in nuclear non-proliferation programs, rural broadband, food inspections, rent subsidies and election security funding.
The latest funding fight comes with Trump pushing unprecedented federal firings as he begins unilaterally shrinking or shuttering agencies from USAID to the Department of Education.
The drive is being spearheaded by Trump aide Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, who has enraged much of the country and Congress — including Republican lawmakers — with his seemingly haphazard approach.
While Musk enjoys Trump’s confidence, polling shows he is deeply unpopular with voters, and his cuts have sparked angry confrontations between Republicans and their constituents at town halls.
“House Republicans are not trying to responsibly fund the government,” said Patty Murray, the top Senate Democrat in the funding negotiations.
“They are trying to turn it into a slush fund for Trump and Musk to wield as they see fit so they can shift their focus entirely to tax cuts for billionaires.”
Congress needs a CR because it is so evenly split that it has been unable to approve the 12 separate bills that allocate full 2025 budgets for various federal agencies.
In the Senate, Democrats are under pressure to offer strong opposition to Trump’s agenda but are wary of blocking the CR, fearing that they would be blamed for the resulting shutdown.
Republicans have to clear anything the House passes by a 60-vote threshold, and one conservative has indicated he will be a no, meaning Majority Leader John Thune needs the support of at least eight Democrats.
AFP
