As October 1st marks the end of the U.S government’s fiscal year, there has been a divide among the federal legislators voting on a spending bill. On October 18th, the United States will have reached its limits and no longer be able to spend money. As Congress continued to bicker, Americans grew worried that nothing would be signed or agreed on in time.
Things became so divisive and last-minute that a short-term funding bill, H.R 5305, was approved by the House on Thursday and sent to President Joe Biden in order to avoid a government shutdown. The bill will fund the government through December 3 and ensure that the jobs and benefits for millions of Americans are not at risk as Democrats and Republicans remain at odds over raising the debt ceiling. The short-term funding bill did not include a provision to suspend or raise the debt ceiling.
While it was passed with some bipartisan support, Senate Democrats shot down the Republican amendments. Democrats blocked Sen. Tom Cotton’s amendment to limit federal benefits to Afghan refugees, Sen. Roger Marshall’s amendment to ban the use of federal funds to implement vaccine mandates, and Sen. Mike Braun’s amendment to prohibit Congress from receiving pay if they cannot pass spending bills.
Republicans have been arguing against raising the debt ceiling while Democrats have called increasing the budget a “nonstarter.” The Senate later detached the debt limit suspension from the government funding bill and voted 65-35 on Thursday to send the bill back to the house. It passed in the House on a 254-175 bipartisan vote in less than two hours and will ensure that the government remains funded. The bill includes $28.6 billion for economic recovery and $6.3 billion to aid Afghan refugee resettlement efforts.
Democrats have been fighting amongst themselves over two massive spending bills in Washington D.C, including a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan and a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill that they have aimed at “human infrastructure.”
Both Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have demanded that Democrats hold off on the infrastructure bill and without their support, the bill would fail. They have failed to negotiate on a price tag they would support, even meeting with President Joe Biden over the negotiations. Machin and Sinema are standing firm against the $3.5 trillion price tag, adding that no bill should pass through reconciliation if it authorizes more than $1.5 trillion in spending.
The move has concerned many Democrats who believe that if the bipartisan bill passes first, then they may have to make some changes to the $3.5 trillion spending measure. This could result in many progressive pet projects being booted off the priority list.
Senate Republicans have continued to fight against the debt ceiling increase, with Sen. Ted Cruz calling the provisions a “dangerous ploy” to make America less safe. Cruz said that the funding bill provisions will ignore all of the human rights and national security concerns they have with refugees and rely on an inadequate vetting procedure.
Many Biden Administration officials have even confirmed that they facilitated the trafficking of child brides and evacuees into the United States after Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. They have continued to deepen the humanitarian catastrophe, which prevents us from undoing the damage Biden has done to illegal immigration policies.
“Despite controlling the Senate, the House, and the White House, Democrats in Washington, D.C. have refused to govern responsibly and instead focused on radically transforming our country and destroying our economy with crushing tax hikes and spending sprees,” Cruz said.
At this point, Democrats can’t even run a government let alone fund it. They only fund what they want and threaten a government shutdown over the rest.
