The US House of Representatives approves an initiative to avoid the government shutdown

The House of Representatives of USA, majority Democrat, passed a bill to avoid a government shutdown just 48 hours before it runs out of funds.

The initiative was approved with 221 votes in favor and 212 against. The only Republican who supported the measure was the moderate Adam Kinzinger.

The bill seeks to avoid a government shutdown and increase funding until February 18, at which time Democrats and Republicans will have to reach another agreement to prevent the Administration from paralyzing.

Now, the initiative will go to the United States Senate, where a group of Republican senators led by Mike Lee of Utah has threatened to paralyze the Administration in protest against the rules of the American president, Joe Biden, so that large companies force their employees to get vaccinated.

That group of senators has rebelled against their leader, Mitch McConnell, who had promised to reach an agreement with the Democrats to avoid a government shutdown.

Asked this Thursday by the press in the White House, Biden said that he “no” believes that the Administration is going to be paralyzed.

He explained that he has spoken by phone with McConnell and with the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, and said that “there is a plan in place” to finance the Government “unless someone decides to act totally erratic.”

Neither Biden’s party nor the leadership of the Republican Party want to paralyze the Administration during Christmas, as happened three years ago during the Presidency of Donald Trump (2017-2021).

That was the longest shutdown in U.S. history at 35 days, though the Administration has run out of funds 20 times since 1976, when new budget laws were passed.

When the government runs out of funds, most government agencies, museums, and national parks close their doors, while hundreds of thousands of federal employees are temporarily out of work and without pay.