According to the Financial Association on December 21 (Editor: Xiaoxiang), it was only half an hour after the midnight bell rang that the USA Senate ‘slowly’ passed the latest version of the short-term spending bill, thereby avoiding getting into an uncontrollable shutdown crisis farce.

According to media reports, the USA Senate has just passed a stopgap spending bill to prevent the government from shutting down with a vote of 85 to 11, and the bill has been sent to President Biden for signing. This bill will ensure that the USA federal government continues to receive operational funding, extending the funding duration from this Friday evening to mid-March next year.

The recently passed bill is nearly identical to the one that failed to pass in the House of Representatives on Thursday, but it removed the provisions regarding Trump's proposal to suspend or raise the debt ceiling.

Previously, the House of Representatives had passed the proposal earlier on Friday with a vote of 366 to 34, with the number of votes in favor far exceeding the two-thirds threshold required for special fast-track procedures.

The passage of the bill also marks the third attempt by House Speaker Mike Johnson this week to avoid a government shutdown, which has finally been achieved. Although there is still anger over the earlier bipartisan agreement being vetoed, and Johnson has hardly any time to ‘communicate’ with the Democrats, the bill ultimately received strong support from the Democrats.

It is reported that the proposal approved on Friday will extend government funding to March 14 and also provide over 100 billion USD in disaster relief and 10 billion USD in economic assistance for farmers. The bill also includes a one-year extension of the Agriculture Act, which is the cornerstone of USA food and agricultural policy.

However, the part concerning Trump's proposal to freeze the debt ceiling has been removed from the new bill. Previously, Trump had told Republicans that he hoped to see the bill raise or eliminate the USA's debt ceiling. Trump stated that the debt ceiling must be adjusted regularly so that the USA government can continue to pay its creditors and avoid default.

However, the previous proposal covering a two-year suspension of the USA government's borrowing limit was defeated in the House of Representatives with a vote result of 174 in favor and 235 against. A total of 38 Republicans voted against the bill, most of whom were fiscal hawks, and almost all Democrats also voted against it. The votes in favor did not reach the two-thirds supermajority required for fast-track procedures.

It is crucial that the bill at the time also failed to gain simple majority support in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, making it unlikely for it to be submitted again to the House, leading Speaker Johnson to subsequently remove the provisions related to the debt ceiling.

Johnson stated on Friday that congressional lawmakers will revisit the debt ceiling issue in January. He mentioned that Republicans will have greater power to influence government spending next year, as they will hold the majority in both chambers of Congress, and Trump will be entering the White House.

In any case, although it was approximately half an hour "overdue," the USA's Democratic and Republican parties ultimately avoided the government actually falling into a shutdown at the last minute.

A government shutdown would lead to hundreds of thousands of federal employees being furloughed without pay, and a series of government functions would be restricted. The trade organization for the USA tourism industry recently warned that a government shutdown could cause Airlines, hotels, and other companies to lose $1 billion each week, resulting in significant chaos during the busy Christmas period.

It is worth mentioning that the last time the USA government experienced a prolonged shutdown was during the first term of President-elect Trump—from December 2018 to January 2019. That shutdown lasted for 35 days, making it the longest government shutdown in American history. The main reason for that shutdown was the dispute over funding for the border wall, with President Trump demanding Congress provide funding for the USA-Mexico border wall, while Democrats refused to meet this demand.

For a long time, financial issues have been an important bargaining chip in the partisan struggles in the USA. Due to continuous conflicts between Democrats and Republicans, the USA federal government has experienced as many as 21 shutdowns since Congress officially implemented budget procedures in 1976.

Editor/lambor