WASHINGTON: The US averted a government shutdown with hours to spare on Friday (Mar 14) as lawmakers already reeling from President Donald Trump’s radical federal spending cuts voted to maintain the lights on by September.
Dealing with a midnight deadline to fund the federal government or permit it to start out winding down, Democrats dropped plans for a blockade on a Trump-backed Invoice handed earlier this week by the Home – clearing its path for approval by the Republican-led Senate.
“Of their typical trend, Senate Democrats engaged in political theater to delay the inevitable and trigger instability,” mentioned Ted Cruz, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
“Individuals voted for change below President Trump and Republican management after 4 years of chaos. The federal government is funded, let’s get again to work.”
Democrats had been below immense stress from their very own grassroots to defy Trump and reject a textual content they mentioned was filled with dangerous spending cuts.
However Chuck Schumer, their chief within the higher chamber, shocked his rank-and-file forward of the crunch vote by asserting he would again the Republican-drafted proposal.
Ten Democrats – fearful that they’d be blamed over a stoppage with no apparent exit ramp – backed down from a showdown with Trump and allowed the Invoice to advance to a closing flooring vote, the place it solely wanted Republican help.
The week’s motion in Congress marked a giant victory for Trump, who turned the political thumbscrews on some holdouts among the many fractious Home Republicans, successfully stamping out a insurrection that might have ushered in a shutdown.
The funding struggle was centered on opposition to Trump’s Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), spearheaded by tech billionaire Elon Musk, which is working to downsize the federal government.
DOGE goals to chop federal spending by US$1 trillion this yr and claims to have made financial savings to this point of greater than US$100 billion, though its verified value financial savings come to lower than a tenth of that determine.
