Biden signs stopgap funding bill to avert gov't shutdown: WH

• 

US President Joe Biden signed on Friday a short-term government funding bill to give Congress more time to negotiate an omnibus spending bill and delay a federal government shutdown by a week, the White House said in a press release.

Congress passed the continuing resolution earlier this week to fund the government at previously appropriated levels through Dec. 23. Government funding was set to expire Friday midnight without the passage of another continuing resolution or spending bill.

"This is about taking a very simple, exceedingly responsible step to ensure we finish the year without hiccups and with minimal drama. A one-week CR will give us more time so we can keep working," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said right before the passage of the temporary funding bill.

The short-term spending bill gives Congress additional time to negotiate a year-long omnibus spending bill before the end of the year. Some Republican lawmakers, however, have proposed passing another continuing resolution into the new year when they could draft an omnibus with their party in control of the House of Representatives.

On September 30, the US House of Representatives passed legislation to fund the federal government and send an amount of nearly $12.4 billion to Ukraine, sending the bill to US President Joe Biden’s desk to sign it before midnight, which marks the shutdown deadline.

House lawmakers passed a last-minute temporary funding bill to continue the fiscal year 2022 funding levels through December 16 in a vote of 230-201, in order to prevent an imminent government shutdown. Congress planned to pass in the coming months a full-year spending bill, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.  

The legislation also gave approximately $12.4 billion in fresh assistance to Kiev, including $4.5 billion in economic assistance, $3 billion in security aid, $2.8 billion for US European Command, and $1.5 billion to refill US arms stocks.  

In March, Biden signed legislation to finance federal government operations in the near term. The continuing resolution he approved financed the government until March 15, allowing time for a massive $1.5 trillion federal spending package to reach Biden's desk.

The Senate cleared the continuing resolution and the bigger appropriations package, which supports the government through September and contains billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine. But the larger legislation takes time to go from Capitol Hill to the White House, while the government's financing was slated to expire at midnight, necessitating the continuing resolution.

Earlier in the same week, US senators approved nearly $14 billion in aid for Ukraine, as part of a massive plan to finance federal agencies and prevent a catastrophic government shutdown.

Biden signed HR 6617 into law, also known as the "Further Additional Extending Government Funding Act," providing the fiscal year 2022 appropriations to Federal agencies through March 11, allowing the Federal Government to continue its projects and activities.

It is worth noting that the last time Republicans and Democrats allowed government funding to lapse, a record-long 35-day partial shutdown ensued, spanning from December 22, 2018, until January 25, 2019.

The key stumbling block was over then-President Donald Trump's demand for additional large investments in a U.S.-Mexico border wall that many believed was ineffective and wasteful.