The US Senate overwhelmingly approved a temporary funding measure to avert a government shutdown, delaying a partisan clash over federal spending until the new year and leaving out emergency aid to allies Ukraine and Israel.

The 87-11 vote late Wednesday night sends the measure, already passed by the House, to President Joe Biden. He is expected to sign it before the shutdown deadline late Friday night.

The outcome provides a temporary reprieve from a bitter ideological struggle over spending that already this year has brought the US close to a debt default, provoked Fitch Ratings to downgrade the nation’s sovereign credit rating, and cost former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy his job.

The measure “accomplishes two things that I and other Democrats have been insistent on for weeks: it will avoid a government shutdown, and it will do so without any of the cruel cuts or poison pills that the hard right pushed for,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.

The new House speaker, Mike Johnson, who proposed the interim funding package, faces scathing criticism just three weeks into the job from some hardline conservatives because he didn’t meet their demands for immediate deep spending cuts or changes to immigration policies. Ninety-three House Republicans voted against their leader on the measure.

Tempers flared in the Capitol as the stopgap bill progressed, with one hardline conservative making an accusation of bullying on Tuesday after McCarthy bumped into him in a crowded hallway.

Illustrating the stakes of the turmoil, Moody’s Investors Service on Friday lowered the US’s credit-rating outlook to negative from stable. Moody’s cited increasing risks to the country’s fiscal strength and specifically pointed to political polarization in Congress.

The short-term funding bill that the Senate approved allows both parties to regroup over the Thanksgiving holiday while talks continue on a border security compromise and broader spending deals.

The measure funds some parts of the government through Jan. 19 and others through Feb. 2. Johnson said this week this is the last time he would support a short-term funding measure.

The risk of a partial government shutdown in January is heightened because the agencies singled out in the first funding lapse wouldn’t trigger some of the most politically sensitive consequences, such as cutting off pay for military personnel and closing national parks. Those agencies would not lose funding until February.

At the same time, divisions among Republicans have repeatedly stymied efforts to pass the 12 full-year spending measures that ordinarily fund the government and were due Oct. 1. House Republicans on Wednesday again failed to agree on one of those annual measures, for federal law enforcement agencies, causing Johnson to send lawmakers home early for the holiday recess.

Ukraine Outlook

The White House has requested more than $61 billion in additional assistance for Ukraine as part of a nearly $106 billion overall package that also includes funding for Israel, operations on the US-Mexico border and aid for Taiwan.

Hardliners are against fresh Ukraine aid. Johnson opposed the first tranche of Ukraine war aid in May 2022 but has said he now sees the assistance as a priority.

However, Johnson and many Republican senators are insisting on tying money for Ukraine to Republican demands on border security. Such immigration changes, including making it harder for migrants to seek asylum in the US, will be difficult to negotiate between the parties, though bipartisan talks are underway in the Senate.

Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats would negotiate on the border in good faith in the coming weeks, but 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.

First Published:Nov 16, 2023 10:06 AM IST