ALBAWABA – The United States (US) Congress passed the stopgap bill late Wednesday pitched by new House Speaker Mike Johnson, and left out US aid to Israel and Ukraine, citing it as the ‘next priority’.
The stopgap funding bill will keep federal agencies running for another two months and avert a holiday season government shutdown. But it now has to be signed by President Joe Biden.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), democrats pressed for the inclusion of US aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, but each now will be dealt with separately.
Meanwhile, a $61 billion request from the White House for Kyiv is looking particularly precarious amid conservative opposition, AFP reported.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the bill was "far from perfect" but achieved Democrats' aims of keeping the lights on without "cruel cuts or poison pills," as reported by AFP.
According to Schumer, ending US aid to Israel and Ukraine will be the chamber’s “next priority”.
“We will be working on it immediately when we get back from Thanksgiving,” he said.
The bill Congress passed is to be signed by President Joe Biden, even though it leaves out US aid to Israel, Ukraine which he insisted on - Shutterstock
The outcome provides a temporary reprieve from a bitter ideological struggle, as described by Bloomberg, over spending that already this year has brought the US close to a debt default.
Just a couple of months ago, the US debt crisis pushed Fitch Ratings to downgrade the US’s much-coveted sovereign credit rating and cost former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy his job.
Moody’s Investors Service on Friday lowered the US’s credit-rating outlook to negative from stable, citing increasing risks to the country’s fiscal strength. Moody’s specifically pointed to political polarization in Congress, according to Bloomberg.
Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats would negotiate on the Republicans’ border demands in good faith in the coming weeks, which they have tied to US aid to Israel and Ukraine. But he insisted a compromise would have to be reached with both parties giving something.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, however, said Democrats didn’t yet seem willing to make the kinds of policy changes needed to slow the flow of migrants into the country.
The White House had requested more than $61 billion in additional assistance for Ukraine as part of a nearly $106 billion overall package that also includes US aid to Israel, as well as operations on the US-Mexico border and aid for Taiwan.
