- House Speaker Kevin McCarthy refrained from pressing for significant spending cutbacks.
- As requested by President Joe Biden, the deal will enhance federal disaster help by $16 billion but exclude funding to Ukraine.
- The US would have received $6 billion in disaster relief while also receiving $6 billion to aid Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
After a 45-day government closure, the House of Representatives on Saturday passed a funding bill with Democratic support to send it to the Senate. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy refrained from pressing for significant spending cutbacks.
As requested by President Joe Biden, the deal will enhance federal disaster help by $16 billion but exclude funding to Ukraine, a White House goal that is opposed by an increasing number of Republican senators. 335 against 91 in the lower house.
Finance project
In a last-ditch effort to prevent government standstill, House lawmakers approved a financing plan by a vote of 335-91, sending the bill to the Democratic-controlled Senate to keep the government operating for an additional 45 days.
The Senate also convened an extraordinary weekend session in the final hours before the government funding deadline at midnight and made preparations to step in.
A bill that would have funded the government for 45 days, or until November 17, was approved by the House of Representatives, bringing it closer to the Senate’s proposal.
According to the House plan, the United States would have received $6 billion in disaster relief while also receiving $6 billion to aid Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
The House measure, however, called for giving $6 billion to Ukraine and $6 billion to the US for disaster relief. Hakeem Jeffries, the head of the House Democrats, expressed concern that “extremist” Republicans would cause a shutdown and claimed that the American people deserved better.
