U.S. House of Representatives backs bill to extend funding

The U.S. House of Representatives on December 20, a few hours before the onset of the shutdown supported a bill to temporarily extend funding for the federal government. The session was broadcast on the C-SPAN television channel.

Before midnight from Friday to Saturday local time (December 21 08:00 Moscow time) the US Congress, including the House of Representatives and the Senate, needs to reach an agreement to avoid a shutdown of federal agencies.

Thus, members of the House of Representatives were able to get two-thirds of the votes in favor of the bill. Now the document went to the Senate (the upper house of Congress) for a vote. After that, if approved, the bill will be sent for signature to the President of the United States Joe Biden.

The US is on the verge of shutdown because of Trump's stance. What the media say

Earlier in the day, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson promised not to allow a shutdown, as Republican congressmen are trying to find a last-minute solution to the issue of funding the government.

On the eve, December 19, in the U.S. Congress failed to pass a bill to extend the funding of the government and raise the ceiling of the national debt. In support of the document were 174 members of the lower house of Congress, and 235 spoke against. The bill provides for the extension of funding for the federal government until March 14, 2025 and suspension until January 30, 2027 of the United States debt ceiling, which in November for the first time exceeded the $36 trillion mark.

On December 20, Maksim Chirkov, associate professor at the Department of Economic Policy and Economic Measurements of the State University of Ukraine, told Izvestia that refraining from raising the debt ceiling will lead to the end of the U.S. financial system. In the future, this will provoke a weakening of the dollar and its loss of the role of reserve currency, he added.

Prior to that, on December 18, Trump demanded that Democrats eliminate the US government debt ceiling or significantly increase its level. He linked the importance of this issue to the vote in the US Congress on the adoption of a temporary resolution to fund the government, without which the country faces a shutdown as early as January 20. In turn, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accused Trump of allegedly ordering his fellow Republicans to shut down the US government.

In addition, Jean-Pierre said on Dec. 20 that problems could arise in the transition of power to the new Trump administration due to disruptions in funding for the U.S. government.

On December 11, the U.S. Budget and Control Office (GAO) noted that Congress should immediately repeal the statutory public debt ceiling by tying the amount of borrowing to changes in government revenues and spending.