US Senate votes through last-gasp bill to keep government open

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The US Congress avoided a government shutdown following days of chaos at the Capitol after the Senate passed a stopgap funding measure in the early hours of Saturday.

The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 85 to 11, with bipartisan support. The bill also passed the House earlier on Friday and now goes to US President Joe Biden, who will sign it later on Saturday, according to the White House.

Technically, Congress missed the midnight deadline to avoid the shutdown, but not enough to cause disruption. The federal government had stopped preparing for a shutdown before the Senate vote and no agencies had halted operations, the White House said.

The passed bill included no changes to the debt ceiling, despite President-elect Donald Trump's call for lawmakers to use the legislation to remove the mechanism that limits federal government borrowing.

“After a chaotic few days in the House, it's good news that the bipartisan approach has finally prevailed,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said before the vote, calling the stopgap a “good law”.

The bill's passage by both houses of Congress ended a week of volatility in Washington as Asset and his ally Elon Musk expanded their influence over radical Republicans, pushing them to reject what they called “gifts” to Democrats.

But Democrats also claimed victory, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries saying his party had “stopped extremist Maga Republicans from shutting down the government.”

He added: “House Democrats were able to stop the billionaire boys club, which wanted a $4 trillion blank check by suspending the debt ceiling. »

The bill's progress appeared uncertain Friday after Musk expressed his continued disdain for the measure: “So, is this a Republican bill or a Democratic bill?

The bill that passed was the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's third attempt to pass the bill in the House after Trump torpedoed the first bipartisan deal earlier in the week.

The new bill was almost identical to Johnson's second, but removed any measures to raise or suspend the debt ceiling, despite Trump's demands. It extends government funding at current levels until March 14 and provides aid for natural disaster relief and farmers.

Johnson said after the bill passed the House that he had been in “constant contact” with Trump and that he spoke to Musk shortly before the vote and received their blessing.

Trump “knew exactly what we were doing and why, and that’s a good outcome for the country.” I think he’s certainly happy with this outcome as well,” he told reporters at the Capitol.

Johnson said he asked Musk, “Hey, do you want to be Speaker of the House?” » . . . He said: “It might be the hardest job in the world.” It is.”

The passage in the House marked a victory for Johnson, who had vowed earlier in the day that the United States “would not let a government shut down.”

A close reportedly temporarily shut down parts of the government and suspended pay for federal employees. Previous government shutdowns have forced hundreds of thousands of federal workers to be furloughed.

Democrats, unhappy with the abandonment of the previous bipartisan agreement, criticized Musk for getting involved in the process this week, sparking more unrest in Congress just before the US holiday season.

“At the behest of the richest man in the world for whom no one voted, the US Congress has been thrown into chaos,” Democrat Rosa DeLauro said Thursday about Elon Musk.

Some prominent Republicans also appeared to criticize Trump and Musk's interventions.

“I don’t care to count how many times I called him back. . . our counterparts in the House of Representatives how harmful it is to shut down the government and how foolish it is to bet that your own side will not take responsibility,” Mitch McConnell, the outgoing Republican leader of the Senate, said Friday.

“That said, if I had taken it personally every time my advice wasn't followed, I probably wouldn't have spent as much time as I did in this particular job.”