Unexpectedly, the U.S. Congress passed the temporary spending bill again, but Ukraine funding is still unavailable

Ukraine is waiting for a US$61 billion grant from the United States, which seems to be overdue.

The day before the U.S. federal government may shut down on November 17, the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate passed a temporary spending bill and President Biden signed it, pushing the fight over the federal budget between the ruling Democratic government and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to a new stage. year.

The fierce budget battle between the two parties in the United States since September this year has also pushed the United States’ wartime assistance to Ukraine and Israel to a standstill.

White House officials said in October that the last round of aid to Ukraine approved by the U.S. Congress was almost exhausted. In the seven weeks since October, the Biden administration has not announced new financial assistance to Ukraine.

According to reports, the spending bill signed by President Biden passed the House and Senate with a large margin this week, indicating that the Democratic government and the Republican Party are temporarily negotiating to ensure that the federal government will spend the next Christmas and New Year holidays. That would allow operations to continue and potentially give lawmakers more time to resolve their deep differences over government spending levels for the current budget year.

Biden signed the bill Thursday in San Francisco, where he was hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and hosting a dinner for APEC member leaders.

On October 26, the White House urged the United States to immediately provide additional funds to support Israel and Ukraine. At that time, the U.S. House of Representatives had just elected Republican Mike Johnson as the new Speaker of the House and resumed congressional operations.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a press conference that day that funds to assist Ukraine and Israel cannot be delayed. “All I know is that time is not on our side. We urgently need a significant amount of additional funding.”

Previously, U.S. President Biden asked Congress to allocate more than $106 billion to support Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. national security matters. Of the $106 billion package, Ukraine needs $61 billion and Israel $14.3 billion.

The temporary spending package passed by Congress this week will keep the federal government funded at current levels of spending for about two months. The interim spending bill splits the deadline for passing a full-year appropriations bill into two dates: January 19 for some federal agencies, and February 2 for others. Date, will face the risk of government shutdown again.

This two-step approach is supported by the new Republican House Speaker Johnson and the Senate controlled by the ruling Democratic Party. It ensures that the Biden government will not shut down for the time being.

U.S. House Speaker Johnson vowed that he would not support any further stopgap measures, known as continuing temporary funding resolutions. He described the temporary funding bill as “paving the way for next year’s fight with the Democratic-controlled Senate.”

But the temporary appropriations bill does not include the White House’s request for a $106 billion package of wartime aid to Israel and Ukraine.

According to reports, U.S. lawmakers may come back after the Thanksgiving holiday to discuss the request and hope to reach an agreement through bipartisan negotiations. However, the Republican Party seems to be firmly opposed to the $61 billion in funding for Ukraine, which means that Ukraine, which is in a stalemate with Russia on the battlefield, will be in a very difficult situation.

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When President Xi Jinping visited the United States to attend the APEC Summit, he attended a dinner. The dinner was hosted by the National Committee on US-China Relations and the US-China Business Council, and ticket sales became the focus.

According to the New York Times, a ticket to the dinner costs US$2,000 (HK$15,600), but if you want to sit at the main table with Xi Jinping, you have to pay US$40,000 (HK$312,000), which includes 8 seats per table, plus Plus a seat at Xi Jinping’s main table. If the ticket fee for a table of 8 people is deducted, a seat at the main table costs US$24,000 (HK$187,000).

Bai Ming, director of China studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the popularity of contacts between Chinese officials and the U.S. business community sends a signal: “China is still an attractive place to do business, and these companies are eager to engage with Xi Jinping.” The meeting and the dinner together proved it.”

The outside world is very curious about those companies that will spend 40,000 US dollars to sit at the main table of the banquet and share the stage with President Xi. Guests at the main table included these American business people:

Apple – Tim Cook
Nike – Mark Parker
Pfizer – Albert Bourla
Qualcomm Incorporated – Cristiano Amon
Amway Corporation – Milind Pant
BlackRock – Larry Fink
Blackstone Group – Stephen Schwarzman
Boeing Company – Stanley Deal
Bridgewater Associates – Ray Dalio
Broadcom Corporation – Hock Tan
Castle Securities-Peng Zhao
FedEx Corporation – Rajesh Subramaniam
Liberty Point Commodities – Sheldon Pang
Fulgen Genetics – Ming Hsieh
Gilead Sciences – Daniel O’Day
Honeywell International – Darius Adamczyk
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Company – Joseph Bae
Sands Corporation – Robert Goldstein
MasterCard – Merit Janow
Visa – Ryan McInerney
Xcoal Energy – Ernie Thrasher

Business people who have managed to have dinner with President Xi should be very optimistic about the Chinese market.