US Congress passes crucial Bill

Funding law truce enables govt to reopen after hours-long shutdown

WASHINGTON: The US Congress passed a crucial federal spending Bill after hours of delay, sending the measure for President Donald Trump’s signature to end the nation’s second government shutdown in three weeks.

The House voted 240 to 186 yesterday in support of a bipartisan package that extends funding until March 23, and which will reopen the government hours after a conservative senator forced Congress to miss a midnight deadline, sparking the shutdown.

Trump supported the measure and was expected to sign it into law yesterday, ending a serious and embarrassing drama on Capitol Hill over federal spending.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top Republican in Congress, acknowledged the perversity of the “entirely needless” shutdown, which may

enter the history books as just a blip but speaks volumes about the political gridlock that defines Washington.

“A fifth CR while one party controls all levels of government shows the Republicans’ inability to govern,” said House Democrat Nita Lowey, referring to continuing reso- lutions that keep the government funded at the same level as the previous year.

Hours earlier in the pre-dawn darkness, the funding Bill passed the Senate, but not before Senator Rand Paul, a conservative in Trump’s own Republican Party, blocked a vote on the deal because he argued that it was too costly.

The Bill, which includes a farreaching agreement that increases spending limits for the next two years and raises the federal debt ceiling until March 2019, would break the cycle of government funding crises in time for what is set to be a bruising campaign for November’s mid-term elections.

The rebellion that simmered among Republicans and Democrats over the budget agreement boiled over when a determined Paul brought the Senate’s work to a halt.

A fifth CR while one party controls all levels of government shows the Republicans’ inability to govern. Nita Lowey

The Kentucky Republican took the floor to blast the increase in federal spending limits, and in particular the fiscal irresponsibility of his own party.

“I can’t in all good honesty and all good faith just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits,” Paul said.

“If you’re against president (Barack) Obama’s deficits, but you’re for the Republican deficits, isn’t that the very definition of hypocrisy?” he boomed, adding that he wanted his fellow lawmakers “to feel uncomfortable” over the impasse.

Moving legislation swiftly through the upper chamber of Congress requires consent by all 100 members, but Paul objected.

Ultimately, enough members from both parties joined forces to get the temporary spending Bill across the finish line.