The US Senate approves a partial budget of 460 billion dollars for 2024 and avoids a government shutdown

EFE

The US Senate approved this Friday, less than five hours before the deadline for funds to run out at midnight, the partial budget for fiscal year 2024 with a projected expenditure of 460 billion dollars.

With 75 votes in favor and 22 against, the Senate gave its approval to the project that had already been approved on Wednesday in the House of Representatives with 339 votes in favor and 85 against.

For several hours there was a lot of uncertainty about whether the Senate would be able to approve the project this Friday, but by the afternoon a pact was reached that allowed the vote to be scheduled.

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Once approved by both houses of Congress, US President Joe Biden must sign the project so that the government can use the funds before they run out.

Fiscal year 2024 began on October 1, 2023, but Democrats and Republicans had not been able to agree on the accounts, so Congress had approved up to four budget extensions to avoid an administrative shutdown due to lack of funds.

The first of these extensions, in fact, caused the fall of the then Speaker of the House, Republican Kevin McCarthy, within a fratricidal war of conservatives.

What was approved this Friday is a macro-project of law of 1050 pages that encompasses six budget laws and represents more or less half of the state budget. To approve the other half, Congress has until March 22.

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This partial budget includes funds for the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, part of Defense, Transportation, Interior or Energy. In total, it is 460 billion dollars.

Republicans have achieved cuts in some of their priorities, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which will see its budget reduced from 10.1 billion dollars in 2023 to 9.2 billion now.

Likewise, an increase of 212 million dollars has been agreed to the item for nuclear programs of the Department of Energy, which amounts to 1.69 billion dollars.

Paradoxically, the White House plans to present its requests for the fiscal year 2025 budget next week, when Congress will not yet have approved the entirety of the 2024 budget.

Every time an administrative shutdown is less than a week away from occurring, the White House activates a protocol to prepare all its departments.

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A government shutdown implies sending hundreds of thousands of public employees home without work or pay and the paralysis of many services.

The last shutdown of this type occurred during the Presidency of Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021) and was, with 35 days (from December 22, 2018 to January 29, 2019), the longest in history during the Christmas holidays.