(Washington, Feb 2) US House Speaker Johnson said he is confident that the government "shutdown" can end by Tuesday (Feb 3).
According to AFP, last week, the US Senate passed a spending bill for the remainder of the fiscal year for multiple government departments just hours before their funds were set to run out. However, as the House still needs time to review and pass the bill, several federal government departments officially entered a "technical shutdown" at midnight on January 31.
On Monday (Feb 2), the House ended its recess and returned to snowbound Washington to begin considering the Senate-passed spending bill in order to restart government operations.
Johnson said Sunday (1st) on NBC's "Meet the Press": "I'm very confident; we can end the shutdown as soon as by Tuesday."
Johnson said Sunday (1st) on NBC's "Meet the Press": "I'm very confident; we can end the shutdown as soon as by Tuesday."
He expects that relying solely on House Republican votes will be enough to pass the spending bill.
On the evening of January 30, the Senate passed the funding bill by a vote of 71-29, which will provide funds for several federal agencies—such as the Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Labor, Department of Transportation, and Department of Housing and Urban Development—through the end of the fiscal year on September 30. However, it does not include funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS funding was split off and will be extended at current levels for two more weeks, so that both parties and the White House can continue negotiations on improving the department’s operations.
In January, after immigration enforcement officers shot and killed two US citizens during an operation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the divide between Republicans and Democrats on immigration enforcement deepened. Senate Democratic leader Schumer recently said that unless Immigration and Customs Enforcement is effectively constrained and reformed through legislation, the DHS funding bill will not gain enough support in the Senate. Whether Republicans will accept the Democrats' demands remains to be seen.
In recent years, as partisan conflict between Republicans and Democrats has intensified, the US federal government has repeatedly fallen into, or come to the brink of, "shutdown" crises. A record-setting 43-day federal government shutdown just ended on November 12 of last year.