In Washington, right now, everything seems to have been pushed back three months.
President Biden delivered his State of the Union address on Thursday, traditionally delivered in January for over a century;
and the Senate voted on the night of Friday to Saturday about a quarter of the federal budget for 2024, more than five months after the start of the fiscal year.
By a bipartisan vote of 75 to 22, the US Senate approved a $467.5 billion (€427 billion) spending package that will finance agriculture, transportation, housing, energy, veterans and other programs, until the end of the fiscal year on September 30.
The vote narrowly avoided a partial government shutdown by approving spending bills for several government agencies just hours before current funding expired.
“Tonight, the Senate reached an agreement avoiding a halt on the first six funding bills,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrat) on X. “We will continue to fund important programs to for mothers and children, for veterans, for the environment, for housing and more.
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This bipartisan package fully funds WIC for 7 million moms and kids
It builds on the infrastructure law for our roads and bridges and highways
We'll be able to hire more air traffic controllers and rail safety inspectors
It helps take care of our veterans
And so much more
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 9, 2024
A House of Representatives briefly without a leader
The American federal government financing laws for 2024 should have been promulgated on October 1, but ultra-conservative elected officials, close to Donald Trump, made the debates chaotic, demanding drastic measures against immigration, which had become the main theme of the presidential campaign.
To avoid putting millions of civil servants out of work, and cutting aid to millions of families, Congress approved four temporary financing bills with very short deadlines, time to reach an agreement.
The battle even left the Republican-controlled House of Representatives without a leader for three weeks.
She voted in favor of the text on Wednesday, by 339 votes to 85.
President Joe Biden will quickly sign the laws into law.
But Congress has yet to reach an agreement on a much larger set of spending bills of 1.192 billion (1.09 trillion euros), covering the military, homeland security, health care in particular.
Funding for these programs expires on March 22.
In less than two weeks.
And for the moment, no compromise is on the horizon.