After the Christmas recess, legislative activity has returned to the US Congress with a gift: a budget agreement between Democrats and Republicans that, pending ratification by both chambers, will serve to avoid the closure of the administration. In a joint announcement, the Senate majority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, and the president of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, have reported the agreement, which will finance the Executive with 1.66 trillion dollars for the fiscal year 2024.
Congressmen must now materialize the agreement, which establishes the limit that the administration can spend, in the approval of a dozen budget laws. They will have to do so before January 19, the date on which 20% of the Executive’s funds are exhausted, to avoid a partial government shutdown, and before February 2 to avoid a total shutdown. These are the dates established by the second extension approved last November, after the hardline Republicans frustrated the possibility of an agreement.
The president, Joe Biden, has celebrated the pact, which is in line with the spending ceiling that he negotiated last spring with Kevin McCarthy, the previous president of the Lower House. “The bipartisan funding framework reached by congressional leaders brings us one step closer to preventing an unnecessary government shutdown and protecting important national priorities,” he said in a statement, “now, congressional Republicans must do their job, stop threatening to shut down the government, and fulfill their basic responsibility of funding critical national security priorities.
The announcement does not go into the details of the budget items, but it does mention that “772.7 billion dollars will be allocated to discretionary financing not intended for defense”, so it follows that the remaining amount, 886.3 billion, will go to military expenses. defending. This does not include, however, the additional aid to Ukraine and Israel, of about $100 billion, that Biden requested from Congress in December. But it does clear, for the moment, the systemic threat in the US of a government shutdown due to lack of funds.
