Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Key senators in the United States on Sunday unveiled a short-term spending bill that would keep federal agencies funded through December 11, as lawmakers move to avoid a government shutdown in the middle of the campaign season. The Senate is expected to vote on the measure before leaving Washington later this week for its traditional August recess.
The stopgap bill would fund the federal government at current levels past the midterm elections and into early December, giving Congress more time to settle differences on full-year spending. Both Republicans and Democrats are looking to avoid another shutdown before voters go to the polls, after two lengthy shutdowns in the past 10 months.
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The House has already passed a similar measure, but it did not include several exceptions sought by the White House. Senators have spent recent days negotiating which of those to include. Democrats pointed out that one request that was left out was the administration’s demand for USD 1 billion to build “Trump-class” battleships.
The move is unusual because Congress typically waits until the final days, or even hours, before a funding deadline to pass a short-term extension. This time, senators are acting two months before the fiscal year ends on September 30. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said passing the bill was his top priority before the August recess, noting that Americans had already experienced two record-breaking shutdowns in the past 10 months. “We need to ensure that they do not face a third,” Thune said.
Lawmakers need the extension because Congress has struggled to negotiate and pass the 12 annual appropriations bills before the deadline. The extra time is meant to help them work through sharp differences, with Republicans pushing for a major rise in defence spending while cutting non-defence spending. Trump has proposed a 10 per cent cut in non-defence programmes overall and a roughly 44 per cent rise in defence spending. A shutdown before the election is something both parties want to avoid, especially after polling showed that neither side escaped blame for last autumn’s record 43-day shutdown. Democrats had wanted to extend an expiring health insurance tax credit and opposed a short-term bill without it, while Republicans said that was a separate policy fight. Another spending clash over funding for the Department of Homeland Security took 76 days to settle after Democrats refused to fund US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol without changes to those operations.
The bill also delays a proposed Trump administration rule on grants that has drawn criticism. The rule would require a senior political appointee at each agency to review grant proposals using criteria that include “ensuring that discretionary awards advance the President’s policy priorities”. Senator Susan Collins, the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and top Democratic appropriator Senator Patty Murray said the rule would not take effect during the life of the stopgap bill. Collins said she had pushed for major changes to the rule, citing “its potential to politicise grants and harm small, rural communities, families, and biomedical research”. Murray said, “While Republicans rejected killing the proposed rule outright, I am going to keep fighting to put a stop to it once and for all, and I will keep pressing my Republican colleagues to do exactly that.” Democrats say the rule could be used to punish political opponents and reward allies, while the White House Office of Management and Budget says it is aimed at improving accountability and ensuring taxpayer money is not wasted or misused.
In summary, the proposed spending bill is meant to keep the US government running through December 11, prevent another shutdown before the elections and buy Congress time to resolve broader disputes over spending, while also temporarily blocking a contested grants rule.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
