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The US Congress was expected to pass a short-term spending bill on Thursday that would avert a partial government shutdown and free up lawmakers to focus on more contentious negotiations over aid to Ukraine.
Passage of the legislation appeared almost certain after the Senate overwhelmingly approved the bill. A vote in the House of Representatives is expected later on Thursday.
The legislation would extend government spending at current levels for some federal agencies until March 1 and others until March 8.
“Avoiding a shutdown is very good news for the country, for our veterans, for parents and children, and for farmers and small businesses — all of whom would have felt the sting had the government shut down,” said Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate.
The short-term spending bill would give Capitol Hill leaders time to work out a more permanent funding solution built around a $1.66tn spending deal reached earlier this month. It would mark a rare breakthrough in a Congress that has been riven by partisan warfare for months.
Without a contentious battle over keeping the US government open, congressional leaders are hoping negotiations can resume to craft a compromise on additional funding for Ukraine. Washington’s inability to send more military aid to Kyiv has alarmed western officials and was the subject of a rare White House meeting between President Joe Biden and congressional leaders earlier this week.
In order to win support of Republicans, a military assistance package is expected to include measures to curb immigration at the US border with Mexico. Speaking on Thursday before a trip to North Carolina, Biden warned of a “disaster” if no deal was reached.
“I think the vast majority of members of Congress support aid to Ukraine. The question is whether or not a small minority are going to hold it up, which would be a disaster,” he said.
Despite progress on keeping the government open, there are risks for House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Republican leader who struck the deal with Democratic senators. Like his predecessor Kevin McCarthy, Johnson faces a backlash from rightwing members of his party.
“The @HouseGOP is planning to pass a short-term spending bill continuing Pelosi levels with Biden policies, to buy time to pass longer-term spending bills at Pelosi levels with Biden policies,” the House Freedom Caucus, a group of far-right Republicans, wrote on X earlier this week, in a reference to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat. “This is what surrender looks like.”
McCarthy lost the speakership last year after he struck a similar deal with Democrats to keep the government funded, prompting a rebellion from a small band of hardline Republican House members.
Many of the House Republicans who have been willing to shut down the government over federal spending are also sceptical about any deal with Democrats on the border and Ukraine, meaning the rebels may now make reaching a deal on aid for Kyiv even more difficult.
“Codifying any level of acceptable illegal immigration is asinine and will be dead on arrival,” Chip Roy, a Republican congressman from Texas, posted on X.
