Fri. Nov 8th, 2024
Occasional Digest - a story for you

Congress managed to avert a government shutdown Saturday with an 11th-hour stopgap funding bill that will keep the government open for 45 days. After refusing for weeks to budge on negotiations over legislation to fund the government, McCarthy suddenly reversed course Saturday and called up a bill that abandoned the border policies and spending cuts he promised to include to appease conservative hard-liners.

Biden signed the bill Saturday night, minutes before the midnight deadline. In the effort to avoid what could have been a disastrous government shutdown, Biden was forced to leave one of his top priorities, aid for Ukraine, in limbo.

“While the speaker and an overwhelming majority of the Congress have steadfastly supported Ukraine to defend itself against the aggression and brutality of the Russian attack on women and children, in addition to military in Ukraine, there is no Ukrainian funding in this agreement,” Biden said on Sunday. “Despite that, I did not believe we could let a million Americans go through the pain of a government shutdown. But let’s be clear. I hope my friends on the other side keep their word about support for Ukraine.”

On Saturday, a White House official told POLITICO that they expect McCarthy to bring a separate bill to the floor for funding to Ukraine “shortly.”

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