Biden Signs Stopgap Spending Bill, Averting Government Shutdown | Global News Avenue

President Joe Biden signed a stopgap spending bill into law on Saturday to keep the federal government funded and avoid a damaging shutdown.

House lawmakers reached an agreement on a budget extension ahead of Friday’s government shutdown deadline, and the Senate approved the measure early Saturday. The bill is expected to keep federal funding going until March, when Republicans take control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. A government shutdown typically occurs when one party controls the White House and another party controls the Senate or House of Representatives and uses negotiations to drive a bargain between the two parties.

By law, the federal government’s budget is due before the start of the fiscal year on October 1. However, legislators through provisional measures Extend the deadline to Dec. 20 to give both sides time to agree on how Congress should spend the money. This situation has become commonplace in recent decades. Budget bills have been on time only four times since 1977, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit research group.

This time, even though lawmakers appeared to agree on a budget deal last week, they are still scrambling to meet the deadline. On Tuesday, congressional leaders said they had reached a compromise that would extend government funding through March. However, President-elect Donald Trump and his newly appointed budget adviser, Elon Musk issued a statement on social media Thursday criticizing the deal, leading Republicans to withdraw it.

The bill passed without extending the debt ceiling, a provision that President-elect Trump had called for.

Updated—December 21, 2024: This article has been updated to reflect events since it was first published.