Key Takeaways
- President Biden signed a spending bill into law Saturday averting a government shutdown.
- The stopgap measure is expected to keep the federal government funded through March, when Republicans will control the White House and both chambers of Congress.
- The bill passed without a debt ceiling extension, a provision President-elect Trump had called for.
President Joe Biden signed a stopgap spending bill into law Saturday to keep the federal government funded and avoid a disruptive shutdown.
House legislators had come to an agreement on a budget extension just before the government shutdown deadline Friday, and the Senate approved the measure early Saturday. The bill is expected to keep the federal government funded through March, when Republicans will control the White House and both chambers of Congress. Shutdowns typically occur when one party controls the White House and the other the Senate or the House of Representatives as they use the talks to bargain across the aisle.
By law, the federal government’s budget is due before the beginning of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. However, lawmakers passed temporary measures extending the deadline to Dec. 20 to allow time for both parties to agree on how Congress should spend its money. This has become commonplace in recent decades; budget bills have been on time only four times since 1977, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit research organization.
This time, lawmakers were scrambling to meet the deadline despite seemingly agreeing on a budget deal last week. On Tuesday, congressional leaders said they had come to a compromise that would extend government funding through March. However, President-elect Donald Trump and his newly appointed budget advisor, Elon Musk, made statements on social media Thursday that criticized the deal, causing Republicans to pull back.
The bill passed without a debt ceiling extension, a provision President-elect Trump had called for.
UPDATE—Dec. 21, 2024: This article has been updated to reflect events that transpired since it was first published.
