Finances
In the United States, the “shutdown” narrowly avoided
The Democrats and the Republican opposition reached an agreement at the last minute on Saturday September 30, 2023 in Congress. By adopting an emergency funding measure on Saturday, the US House of Representatives and the Senate are funding the federal government at the last minute and avoiding the shutdown of public services.
PublishedOctober 1, 2023, 05:58
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Getty Images via AFP
The United States avoided the paralysis of its federal administration at the last minute, with the adoption by the Senate, just three hours before the “shutdown”, of an emergency measure allowing its financing to temporarily continue.
In a last-minute turnaround, the House of Representatives first passed this text proposed by the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, a last-ditch attempt to avoid paralysis. Adopted with 335 yes (91 no) in the House, it was then approved by 88 senators against 9, avoiding in extremis a “shutdown” for 45 days, which would have put civil servants on technical unemployment and cut food aid to some beneficiaries.
An emergency measure valid for 45 days
President Joe Biden immediately welcomed the deal in the Senate and called on Congress to quickly approve aid to Ukraine that was excluded from the emergency funding measure. “I expect the President of Congress to uphold his commitment to the Ukrainian people and ensure the adoption of the necessary support to help Ukraine at this critical moment,” Joe Biden said in a statement, referring to Kevin McCarthy. The emergency measure passed by the US Congress provides for the administration to continue to be funded for 45 days.
Hundreds of thousands of American officials held their breath as the deadline approached (midnight Saturday night, or 04:00 GMT Sunday), because neither chamber of Congress – nor the Senate – was in control. Democrats, nor the Republican-controlled House of Representatives – had reached agreement on a finance law to extend the federal state budget.
If McCarthy’s measure had not been adopted, the world’s largest economy would have slowed down on Sunday: 1.5 million civil servants would have gone without pay and air traffic would have been disrupted, while visitors to national parks would have found closed door. Saturday’s vote is “a victory for the American people, and a total defeat for right-wing extremists,” said the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.
Ukraine
Aid to Ukraine, a stumbling block between Democrats and many Republicans, is largely absent from the text. Lawmakers must now consider a separate bill for $24 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, which Joe Biden wanted to see included in the budget. A vote could take place early next week, according to American media.
The White House had initially demanded that the budget law include $24 billion in military and humanitarian aid for kyiv. The budgetary crisis will therefore have direct repercussions on the war in Ukraine. “What Russia did was wrong. But I think whatever we do, we have to define what a victory means and what the plan should be,” Kevin McCarthy told reporters.
“I think there is a real frustration across America, which sees this president ignoring the borders of the United States and being more concerned about another place,” he added, referring to this which the Republicans qualify as a “migratory crisis in the United States. A handful of Trumpist Republican elected officials refuse to release any new aid to Kiev, believing that these funds should be allocated to managing the migration crisis.
In 2019, the shutdown cost 3 billion
These lieutenants of Donald Trump, who have disproportionate power due to the very small Republican majority in the House, were ordered by the former president, who could face Joe Biden in 2024, to “paralyze » the federal state unless it wins its case on “all” the budgetary issues under debate.
Elected after numerous negotiations with the Trumpists, Kevin McCarthy risks his seat in these negotiations. “You know what, if I have to risk my position to defend the American people, I will,” he assured Saturday.
Under the presidency of Donald Trump, the United States experienced its longest “shutdown”, during the winter of 2018/2019. According to several estimates, the country’s GDP was then cut by more than 3 billion dollars.
(AFP)Show comments
2023-10-01 03:58:08
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