The short-term spending bill is meant to last 45 days
On Saturday, the House of Representatives voted to pass a short-term spending bill. This is to prevent the government from closing down if the Senate agrees to it.
Now, this bill goes to the Senate. If they act quickly, Congress can prevent many federal employees from being told to stay home from work and stop some government programs that are not very important.
After the short-term bill, which they called a “continuing resolution,” was passed, both Republicans and Democrats in the House were happy and clapped. This doesn’t happen very often when both sides agree.
This special money plan will last for 45 days after the fiscal year ends on Sunday, October 1st. The bill also has $16 billion to help with disasters in the United States, which President Biden asked for in the summer. Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, talked about this on Saturday.
This happened because House Republicans tried to pass a different short-term money plan, but it didn’t work. Their plan had things like making sure the borders were secure and reducing spending. Also, in September, the national debt reached $33 trillion for the first time ever. This made some conservative people worry that the government was spending too much money.
McCarthy, who is an important leader, spoke to reporters before the vote. He said that they need more time to finish their work properly. He also said that he did not want to harm the military and border agents just because the House could not agree on a budget that stops wasting money and deals with border security.
He said that the House will do something to make sure the government does not close down. They will put a simple money plan on the table that will keep the government running for 45 more days. This gives the House and the Senate more time to finish their work. He also mentioned that they will add extra money for disaster relief, like what the president asked for. This is because of the problems in Florida, Hawaii, California, and Vermont this summer.
Before this, the Republicans tried to make similar money plans, but they didn’t get any support from the Democrats. They also didn’t work because some Republicans who are very strict about their beliefs didn’t like them. These people said that a simple money plan is like continuing with what the Democrats did before, and it goes against what the House Republicans promised to do, which is to pass 12 separate money plans that show their conservative ideas for the next year.
Most lawmakers from both sides agree that they need a temporary plan to buy more time to work out a proper deal. The current fiscal year ends tonight, and if the House and Senate do not agree on a plan, many government employees will have to stay home, and some government programs that aren’t very important will stop.
Even though Democrats want a simple temporary plan, it is not clear if they will support the plan that the Republicans are suggesting right now.
Representative Andy Barr from Kentucky thinks Democrats will vote against this plan because they want the Senate’s plan, which also has money for Ukraine. But many House Republicans don’t like that part.
“I think this plan might not pass because House Democrats want the Senate’s plan. So you might see a lot of Democrats voting to close the government. That’s what might happen. Democrats want to make this political, so they’ll vote to close the government,” Barr said.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries from New York did not say how he will vote, but he complained that Republicans are bringing this up at the last minute.
Jeffries said, “House Republicans lied at every step of the way.”