US Political Sphere Passes Two-Day Short-Term Budget... Avoids Shutdown Crisis

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunbyeol Kim] The U.S. political sphere has passed a two-day short-term budget bill to avoid a federal government shutdown.

According to U.S. media outlets such as CNN and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 18th (local time), both the House of Representatives and the Senate held consecutive plenary sessions and approved the short-term budget bill to ensure the government can operate normally for the remaining two days.

Subsequently, the White House announced that U.S. President Donald Trump signed the short-term budget bill passed by Congress that night. As a result, the U.S. Congress narrowly avoided the shutdown deadline and bought more time. Congress was supposed to finalize the federal government budget for fiscal year 2021 (October 1, 2020 ? September 30, 2021) by September 30, but failed to reach an agreement and missed the deadline.

The ruling and opposition parties hastily agreed on the short-term budget bill, securing only the funds necessary to operate the government until that day. Accordingly, over the weekend, both parties are expected to continue negotiations on next year’s budget and the COVID-19 economic stimulus package. It is reported that they have agreed in principle on a new stimulus package worth $900 billion (approximately 989 trillion won), but differences remain over the detailed items.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.