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WASHINGTON (AFP) – Members of the US House of Representatives adopted a provisional budget on Thursday in an effort to avoid the paralysis of federal services by the end of the week.
But the move still has to be approved in the Senate, where Republicans are threatening to “shutdown” President Joe Biden’s administration in protest against a mandatory vaccine imposition on some groups.
To avoid running out of federal state resources and sending hundreds of thousands of workers to technical unemployment, lawmakers had only a day and a half to agree on the new budget.
The closure, when closed, will affect ministries, national parks, some museums and a large number of institutions.
The Winter 2018 shutdown, the longest so far, apparently affected baggage control at airports, a mess that most lawmakers don’t want before the end of the year’s holidays.
“stupidity”
Lawmakers have agreed a text that expands the government’s current budget after lengthy talks. However, a group of Republican lawmakers, most of whom are very close to former President Donald Trump, are currently refusing to vote for him, arguing that it would help fund mandatory vaccinations, which they oppose. Huh.
Opposition focused on a decree signed by Biden requiring employees to vaccinate at companies with more than 100 workers, which he challenged in court.
House Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized these Republican lawmakers, saying it was “foolish for opponents of science and vaccination to say they would shut down the federal government because of it.”
And she confirmed that the House of Representatives would vote on the budget Thursday afternoon, which the Biden administration urged Congress to adopt without delay.
But the “shutdown” scenario, even for a few days, still exists, because once it is approved in the House of Representatives, the text will pass through the Senate before Biden signs it.
A senator’s protest in the Senate can significantly delay voting.
For his part, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday morning that “it appears that the Republican crackdown” could lead to “unnecessary and dangerous” paralysis of the US government.
The situation is so bad that many economists are beginning to estimate the cost of a possible shutdown, which they expect will be a few billion dollars a week.
الد .ين والجيش والضضات
The issue is considered urgent because, before the holidays, legislators will also have to deal with other equally important issues.
In addition to the budget, legislators have to approve a separate defense budget, on which there is still no consensus.
Most urgently, he has until December 15 to increase the debt capacity of the United States to avoid defaulting on the sovereign debt of the world’s largest economic power.
Otherwise, the United States could face a financial crisis and default on its payments, a potentially disastrous situation that major powers around the world are watching closely.
If Congress can address these issues in a timely manner, it will eventually be able to announce the massive social and environmental investment plan that Biden has proposed and is eagerly awaiting.
This $1,750 billion project, which provides major funding for, among other things, free preschool care and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, has been stuck in Congress for months.
According to opinion polls, Biden is relying heavily on a plan very popular with Americans to add positive momentum to his term.
The Democratic majority leader in the Senate resolved to pass the text before Christmas. But the fate of this project, like the others, is still uncertain.
© 2021 AFP