Did you know that the US government could have shut down while you were sleeping the weekend of March 23? For the past six months, the government has not had enough funding for many of its agencies. Although a bill was previously passed in early March to fund the Veterans Affairs, Interior and Agriculture agencies, many other significant departments required money, such as the Defense, Homeland Security and State departments. If these departments do not have sufficient funding, then they will be unable to run, causing at least a partial government shutdown.
A government shutdown would lead to “furloughs” of nonessential staff; a furlough involves laying off workers who are not considered as important to the running of government. The furlough is in place until the government comes to a compromise, raises enough money to fund their employees, and can successfully run their departments again.
The Office of Management and Budget started preparing for a possible shutdown mid-March. On Thursday, March 21, however, lawmakers introduced a $1.2 trillion spending package to fund the government and its agencies through at least September 2024.
Although Republicans and Democrats are increasingly polarized, they came together and passed the funding package. The day after the law was introduced, on Friday, March 22, the spending package went to Congress. According to the Office of the United States’ House of Representatives, the legislation passed with 286 members for it, 134 against, and 12 members abstaining. This was mostly bipartisan, with 185 Democrats and 101 Republicans voting for it.
At 2 AM on the morning of March 23, the Senate passed the spending plan with an overwhelming majority. According to the Washington Post, 74 Senators voted for it, 24 Senators voted against it and two members abstained. President Joe Biden signed the package into law just a few hours later. Without these actions, funding for all government agencies would have expired at midnight.
By Sanya Nadeem ‘26, Rising Assistant Politics & Opinions Editor
Sources:
https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2024102
https://apnews.com/article/congress-shutdown-budget-speaker-johnson-85dc1e93f6c49c154c02a166d0e8e784
