Republicans and Democrats reach agreement to avoid government shutdown in the US

The Republican Party and the Democratic Party announced this Sunday an agreement of US$ 1.66 trillion to finance the US Executive in 2024, a first step to avoid the closure of the government.

The agreement was announced jointly by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican.

It will now have to be ratified by the US Congress and overcome the very likely opposition of far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives, who hoped to force deep budget cuts.

Legislators, who return to Congress this week after the Christmas holidays, have until January 19 to approve the agreement that will avoid the closure of the Government.

And the funds for approximately twenty% of the government budget will be exhausted on January 19, including those for items such as assistance to veterans, while the rest of the funds will be exhausted on February 2.

Although no details have been published about the agreement, according to the Washington Post, it will allow US$886.3 billion in defense spending and US$ 772.7 billion to domestic discretionary spending.

Those figures, the newspaper notes, are in line with an agreement reached last spring by President Joe Biden and then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy to suspend the nation’s debt limit.

In a letter published after today’s announcement, Johnson (current speaker of the Lower House) explained that he achieves “key modifications” regarding the start of negotiations in June and that there will be “more of US$ 16 billion in additional spending cuts to offset discretionary spending levels.”

While these final spending levels will not satisfy everyone and will not cut as much spending as many of us would like, this agreement provides us with a path to move the process forward, reprioritizing funding within the top line towards conservative goals, rather of last year’s Schumer-Pelosi omnibus, and fight for the important policy provisions included in our House FY24 bills, he said.

On November 15, the US Congress approved a new budget extension that avoided an imminent administrative closure with two expiration dates – January 19 and February 2 – that should allow congressmen to negotiate the budget for fiscal year 2024 in time.

The White House has been warning for weeks about the tight deadline to negotiate the agreement, which includes controversial aspects such as immigration policy and military aid for Ukraine.

Congress had focused its efforts before the end of the year on the negotiation of the economic package of more than US$ 100 billion requested by the White House in military aid, among others, for Ukraine and Israel.

In exchange for aid to Ukraine – of more than US$ 60,000 million -, Republicans have called for a tightening of immigration policy.

The White House, for its part, had warned that the money approved throughout 2023 for Ukraine has run out and that it will not be able to continue supporting Kiev in its war with Russia.