The US Senate adopted on Thursday a text on the financing of federal services until December 23, after the House of Representatives, which had done the same on Wednesday, thus pushing for a week the specter of a paralysis of the federal state, the famous ” shut down”.
The senators voted in favor of this finance bill with 71 votes in favor and 19 against. This law still needs to be signed by President Joe Biden to take effect.
Congress thus gives itself an extra week to negotiate a longer-term deal that covers the end of fiscal year 2023.
Parliamentarians had until Friday midnight to reach an agreement, otherwise all funding for federal services would have been suddenly cut.
Ministries, but also national parks, certain museums and a large number of organizations would have been affected, which would have forced hundreds of thousands of employees into technical unemployment.
The winter 2018 “closure”, the longest to date, had particularly affected baggage screening at airports.
Despite the strong partisan divisions, most elected officials on both sides do not want this situation, which risks creating chaos before the holidays.
