Prevent United States Government Shutdown, The House of Representatives Passes Funding Bill To Senate

JAKARTA - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill to fund the federal government through mid-February, sending it to the Senate, which faces a Friday midnight deadline to pass it or face a partial government shutdown.

The Democratic-dominated House voted 221-212 to approve the stop-gap funding bill, which runs until February 18. Only one Republican politician supported the bill.

It was unclear whether the Senate would meet Friday's deadline, as a small group of hardline Republican senators threatened to withhold the bill without amendments to strip President Joe Biden of a vaccine mandate for workers.

Failure to pass the bill means hundreds of thousands of federal workers could be laid off, causing a number of programs to be suspended or reduced.

"This is a good compromise that allows for the right amount of time for both parties in both chambers to finalize negotiations on appropriations," Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday.

However, a group of Republican conservatives, including Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and Roger Marshall, disagreed, raising the possibility the government could be partially shut down over the weekend, while the Senate moved slowly towards its end.

Lee said in the Senate that if he and other Republican senators got a vote on whether to include funding for the vaccine mandate in an upcoming government appropriations bill, they might not delay the government funding bill.

"All I ask is a vote. It will take 15 minutes, we can do it now," Lee said, adding that he and other Republican senators behind the effort wanted a simple majority on the amendments.

Democrats hold 50 seats in the 100-seat Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to vote as a decider.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who must quell the uprising in his caucuses to keep the government operating, reiterated Thursday there would be no shutdown.

But he did not answer when asked whether Republicans would agree to move quickly by agreeing to circumvent the Senate's complicated legislative rules.

"We've got to get through it and that's what we're going to work on," the Republican told reporters.

US House Speaker and Democrat Nancy Pelosi denounced the Republican move, saying it showed "irresponsibility" that Congress would reject.

To note, the spending bill will provisionally retain funding for the federal government's operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, amid concerns about a new increase in cases and the arrival of the Omicron variant in the United States.

Meanwhile, emergency legislation is needed because Congress has yet to pass the 12 annual appropriations bills that fund government activities for the fiscal year starting on October 1.

A partial government shutdown would create political embarrassment for both sides, but especially for the Democrats who narrowly control both chambers of Congress.

In addition, Congress faces another pressing deadline just behind this one. The federal government is also close to the $28.9 trillion borrowing limit, which the Treasury expects to reach by December 15. Failure to extend or lift the limit in time could trigger a catastrophic economic default.

The fact that the spending bill temporarily extended funding through February represents a win for Republicans in closed-door negotiations. Democrats have pushed for action through the end of January, while Republicans are demanding a longer timeline of leaving spending at agreed levels when Republican Donald Trump becomes president.

"While I wish it was earlier, this agreement allows the appropriations process to move forward toward a final funding deal that meets the needs of the American people," House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro said in a statement announcing the agreement.

But he said the Democrats did win in entering the $7 billion provision for Afghan refugees.

Once enacted, the interim funding measure will give Democrats and Republicans nearly 12 weeks to settle their differences over the roughly $1.5 trillion annual appropriations bill that funds "free" federal programs for this fiscal year. The bill does not include mandatory funds for programs such as the auto-renewing Social Security pension plan.