US President Joe Biden on March 1 (local time) signed a short-term spending bill to avoid the risk of a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.
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| US President Joe Biden has just signed a short-term spending bill to avoid the risk of a partial government shutdown at the end of the week. (Source: Reuters) |
The temporary spending bill would fund some federal agencies through March 8 and another group of departments through March 22, instead of the March 1 and March 8 deadlines, respectively, to give Congress more time to complete and pass a full-year budget bill.
Previously, on February 29, this temporary budget bill was passed by the US House of Representatives and Senate.
Mr. Biden called the recent votes in Congress "good news for the American people," but stressed that this was only a short-term solution, not a long-term one.
This is the fourth temporary extension in recent months, and many lawmakers expect it to be the last for the current fiscal year. House Speaker Mike Johnson said negotiators have completed six annual spending bills for federal agencies and are “close to final agreement on others.”
Next week, the US House of Representatives and Senate are expected to pass a package of six spending bills and send them to the President before March 8.
Lawmakers will then work to fund the rest of the government before the new March 22 deadline.
At the end of the process, Congress is expected to approve more than $1.6 trillion in spending for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. That’s roughly the same amount as the previous fiscal year and the figure former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated with the White House last year.
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