Biden enacts short-term budget project to avoid partial government shutdown

The American president Joe Biden promulgated on Friday a budget project short-term plan that keeps one set of federal agencies in operation until March 8 and another set until March 22, officially avoiding a partial government shutdown that would have started on Saturday.

The measure gives lawmakers some more time to draft and approve budget proposals to keep the federal government operating during the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

Washington has been operating on a series of short-term measures because Congress, as it usually does, had failed to pass full-year budget bills on time.

“This bipartisan agreement avoids a damaging shutdown and gives Congress more time to work on full-year funding bills,” Biden said in a statement Thursday night after the House and Senate approved the temporary solution.

“This is good news for the American people. But I want to be clear: this is a short-term fix, not a long-term solution.”

The House of Representatives acted first on Thursday. The vote to approve the extension was 320 to 99 votes. The two-thirds majority required for approval was easily surpassed.

Democrats voted overwhelmingly to avoid a partial shutdown. But the vote was much more divided among Republicans, 113 in favor and 97 against. The Senate then took up the bill and approved it in an afternoon vote of 77-13.

Next week, the House and Senate are expected to pass a package of six budget bills and deliver them to the president by March 8.

Lawmakers will then work to fund the rest of the government before the new March 22 deadline.