President Trump signed the stopgap spending bill early on Thursday beyond the actual deadline. The fiscal year ended on Thursday which signals partial shutdown as the government is no further authorised to funds. A stopgap spending bill ensures that administration proceeds through the lame-duck session after the election.
The lame-duck session is the time span between the declaration of election result and occupation of the house by winning party. Residual bills are considered in this session and the preceding government remains in charge of things.
The bill was passed in Senate with a sweeping majority of 84 to 10. Few Republicans voted against the bill. President Trump was not available at the stipulated time. He signed the bill after he returned from a rally in Washington. However, no shutdown was imposed as the Office of Management and Budget urged federal agencies to continue normal operations. The stopgap spending bill will take care of expenses through December 11. Democrats were seeking a farther deadline till February, which was not agreed upon.
Will senators leave the House for campaigning?
Normally, after the Senate’s business is over, members are free to rush for campaigning for election. The situation is slightly different this time. Democrats and Republicans have agreed that there has to be recovery stimulus plan for the pandemic. The economic size of the recovery plan is still under debate.
There are Appropriation Committees, which write bills related to spending through various agencies. It is working to ascertain the amount of the recovery plan.
No deal between Nancy and Mnuchin
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House and the California democrat has huddled with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to arrive at an amount that is acceptable to both Democrats and Republicans. They failed to strike a deal.
Mnuchin has proposed $1.5 trillion. Centrist factions from both parties agree on this amount. Mnuchin is trying to tap the same sentiment. Democrats are pushing for more. Nancy Pelosi said that they will invite vote in Senate for $2.2 trillion. Majority leader Mitch McConnell has clearly Indicated that Republicans will not let this resolution to pass in the house. They believe the amount to be too large.
Nancy Pelosi and Steven Mnuchin have suggested that they will hold deliberations further to arrive at an agreeable package. Nancy is likely to offer a narrow concession.
What else is in the bill?
The Wednesday legislation has more to it. The bill gives around $30 billion to the Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corp., which provides relief package to farmers. This part of the bill was opposed by leading Democrats but they had to give up following bipartisan support for the measure.
The bill is also expected to prevent any increase in premium of Medicare beneficiaries, who are already facing the brunt of pandemic.
In addition, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has also secured $8 billion for her party to carry out support work for pandemic hit citizens. The fund will be utilized to provide nutritional support to poor families including those who used to get the free or subsidised meal in school.
Appropriation bills still to be passed
There are 12 Appropriation Committees in the USA that look after devising bills to allocate spending for various agencies. They do so within the limits specified by Budget. Each committee floats one bill on annual basis. This year none of the committees have even drafted the bill.
These bills are to be debated and passed in the lame-duck session following the election.
The stopgap spending bill had a clear majority in the Senate. It should have been passed earlier only. It will be interesting to see the amount of recovery package both parties arrive at. Experts have suggested that a large package is needed in America as it battles COVID 19. Republicans believe otherwise.
