President Biden signed a temporary funding bill, preventing a government shutdown just a few hours before the deadline. The bipartisan agreement reached on Saturday will keep the government open until mid-November.
"This is good news for the American people," the president said after signing the bill. He added, however, that the country "should never have been in this position in the first place" and blamed "extreme House Republicans."
Biden isn't pleased with the lack of funding allocated to Ukraine in the bill and called on speaker Kevin McCarthy to work on sending financial support to Ukraine to help with war efforts.
I just signed a law to keep the government open for 47 days. There’s plenty of time to pass Government funding bills for the next fiscal year, and I strongly urge Congress to get to work right away.
The American people expect their government to work.
Let’s make sure it does. pic.twitter.com/ffjwUIPWIt
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 1, 2023
After several weeks of discussions, a measure known as a continuing resolution (CR) proposed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unexpectedly advanced in the House of Representatives on Saturday.
✓ Passed by the House
✓ Passed by the SenateI just signed and sent this short-term stop-gap bill to the White House in order to fund our troops, deliver emergency relief, and keep government open while Congress gets back to work through regular order. pic.twitter.com/1pn4z43Xci
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) October 1, 2023
The bill was passed by the House 335-91 and is now moving on to the Senate. Almost the entire Democratic caucus voted in favor (209), despite the fact that the bill does not provide aid to Ukraine, which was one of the party's top priorities. Republicans were divided, 126 members of the GOP voted in favor of passing the bill while 90 voted against.
The 47-day funding patch, which includes $16 billion in natural disaster relief, prevented (at least for now) federal employees from being furloughed and non-essential government programs from being put on hold.
