(Washington) An agreement in principle was reached on Wednesday between the Democratic and Republican leaders of the American Congress to extend the federal state budget by a few days and avoid the much-feared paralysis.
The United States has been struggling for several months to adopt a finance law for the year 2024.
Entangled in partisan quarrels, which led to the dismissal of a Republican leader in the fall, Congress is currently only capable of adopting a series of mini-laws to extend the budget of the ‘Federal state of a few days, or a few months.
As soon as one of these mini-budgets is about to expire, as one of them should be on Friday, there is a risk that the federal administration will be partially shut down, what the Americans call the “shutdown”.
The list of potential consequences is long: unpaid air traffic controllers, shut down administrations, frozen food aid, unmaintained national parks, etc.
Wednesday’s deal extends part of the current budget by one week to March 8 and another part to March 22, congressional officials said in a statement.
It must now be passed in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and then be signed into law by President Joe Biden to repel this threat.