Senate passes stopgap funding bill to avert government shutdown after missing midnight deadline
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A partial government shutdown went into effect at 12:01am Saturday morning after Congress failed to pass a stopgap bill in time. A little over an hour after the midnight deadline, the Senate passed the bill 85 to 11. It cleared the House of Representatives on Friday evening.
![[House Speaker Mike Johnson was able to get the stopgap bill passed through his chamber 366 to 34. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer presided over a Senate that failed to pass the bill before 12:00am on Saturday]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/21/05/93375375-14216231-image-a-44_1734758863570.jpg)
All that has to happen now for the shutdown to be lifted is for President Joe Biden to sign the funding package, which will also deliver disaster aid to the southeastern US that was rocked by hurricanes and get economic assistance to farmers throughout the country.
![[President-elect Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk each had their own problems with the original 1,547-page CR. Their statements against it ended up torpedoing it]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/21/05/93375363-14216231-image-a-56_1734759401134.jpg)
The partial shutdown comes just days before Christmas and New Year's, and if an agreement hadn't been reached, hundreds of thousands of federal workers would have been furloughed indefinitely. Biden will be signing the bill imminently and has already said he supports it.
Before the Senate passed the bill, the White House released a statement pledging that no agencies would shut down 'because there is a high degree of confidence that Congress will imminently pass the relevant appropriations.'. The statement also confirmed that Biden would sign the crucial legislation when it is sent to his desk.
During a partial shutdown, federal agencies and non-essential services are usually stopped immediately, but that didn't happen this time because the White House said the Office of Management and Budget had ceased government shutdown preparations. That's because there was confidence that the funding bill would ultimately be successful.
