The US Senate has reached an agreement at the stroke of midnight on Friday to avoid the closure of the Government with a consensus that will allow the final amendments to a $1.2 trillion budget package to be voted on this Saturday.

The final vote will take place on Saturday morning and prevents the United States from entering a partial shutdown of the federal government, after the Lower House had voted in favor of the budget package hours earlier. Republican senators will have the opportunity to vote on some of their amendments, but that will not pause the functioning of the Governmentsince it should only take a few hours until the president signs the law.

Shortly before midnight, Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced “an agreement to complete the work of funding the Government” on the House floor. After that announcement, the White House has indicated that ceased all emergency preparations for a possible closure of some Government functions.

“There is a high degree of confidence that Congress will imminently pass the relevant budget appropriations and the president will sign the law on Saturday,” the White House said in a statement. The Executive has assured that Government agencies “will not close and will be able to continue their normal operations” when they resume the bulk of their activity. on Monday.

Increases Defense strength by 3%

The budget negotiated by the Joe Biden Administration with Democratic and Republican congressmen increases defense equipment by 3%, while maintaining the rest of the accounts without major increases, although it contemplates better provisions for education, child care and the fight against cancer.

The budget project passed the vote in the Lower House hours before with the support of Democrats and a sufficient minority of Republicans. Nevertheless, Trampist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene showed her discontent with the agreement calling for the resignation of the leader of the Republican congressmen, Mike Johnson.

The budget is the result of intense months-long negotiations between Republican and Democratic leaderswhich includes some concessions to the hardline conservatives but not enough to satisfy them.

No money for UNRWA

For example, the budget suspends funding for the UN Refugee Agency Palestines (UNRWA) and reinforces security on the border with Mexico with more agents and funds for surveillance.

The 2024 fiscal year began on October 1, 2023, but Democrats and Republicans had not been able to agree on the accounts, so Congress had approved up to four budget extensions to avoid an administrative closure due to lack of funds.

What was approved this Friday completes the budget for the fiscal year after two weeks ago Congress already endorsed 460,000 million that financed approximately 30% of the Governmentso the accounts total more than 1.6 trillion dollars.