US House of Representatives approves and passes bill to Senate hours before shutdown deadline
21 December 2024, 00:32 | Updated: 21 December 2024, 00:34
The United States House of Representatives passed a funding bill on Friday that averted a midnight shutdown.
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The bill has now been passed to the Senate which needs to approve the legislation to ensure the government remains funded beyond midnight on Friday (5am GMT).
The legislation would extend funding for the government until March 14 but does not raise the debt ceiling, defying President-elect Donald Trump's demand to greenlight trillions of dollars in new debt.
The White House has confirmed President Joe Biden will sign the bill into law once it has been passed by the Senate.
The House rejected a short-term funding bill that Republican’s put forward to prevent the federal government running out of cash on Thursday night.
The proposal needed two-thirds of House Representatives to pass but failed to reach that number after 38 Republicans went against the party and blocked the bill.
It comes after President-elect Donald Trump ended the possibility of a previously agreed bipartisan funding deal first proposed by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson being passed.
Trump, alongside his billionaire ally Elon Musk, was extremely vocal in their criticism of the original proposal.
The new proposal, approved by Trump and the unelected Musk, tied government funding to a suspension of the federal debt limit.
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