The United States House took a dramatic turn on Saturday by passing the stopgap bill, preventing the shutdown of the US government. The bill was passed 3 hours before midnight which was the deadline for the shutdown which would have seen millions of federal employees and military personnel sent home or required to work without pay, as per media reports.President Joe Biden has also signed the bill into law and officially called it HR 5860 late on Saturday night, avoiding a government shutdown by a margin. The US announced the signing of the bill on his official Instagram account.He wrote “I just signed a law to keep the government open for 47 days. Theres plenty of time to pass Government funding bills for the next fiscal year, and I strongly urge Congress to get to work right away. The American people expect their government to work. Lets make sure it does.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by President Joe Biden (@potus) The @POTUS account also posted a statement from the President with a caption saying “Tonight, Congress voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans. This is good news, but I want to be clear: we should never have been in this position in the first place.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by President Joe Biden (@potus) US Stopgap bill detailsThe bill was presented by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy just hours before the deadline and was adopted by the House of Representatives with a vote of 335-91. The 71-page bill allows the government to stay open for 45 days, giving the House and Senate more time to finish their funding legislation. One Democrat and 90 Republicans voted against the measure.It includes USD 16 billion in disaster relief — matching the figure the White House included in a supplemental request. However, it does not include Ukraine aid or border policy changes, The Hill reported.The US has been aiding Ukraine against its war with Russia since it began last year and has unleashed war fundings worth more than $43 billion in security assistance for Kyiv.
