US: Congress passes $1,700 budget bill with $45 billion for Ukraine

House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer in Washington on December 23, 2022. The US Congress passed a sweeping federal services finance bill, totaling nearly $1.7 trillion, including 45 billion dollars for Ukraine.

REUTERS - EVELYN HOCKSTEIN

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

No "shutdown" in the United States.

The finance law for 2023 was voted on Friday, December 23 in the House of Representatives the day after its passage in the Senate.

1,700 billion dollars which will be used to finance some projects among the priorities of Joe Biden.

The text must now be signed by the president.

Publicity

Read more

With our correspondent in Washington

,

It was the last major vote before the House of Representatives passed to Republicans earlier this year.

1,700 billion dollars is the envelope intended for the financing of the federal state, defence, education, health or even transport... It provides for 45 billion dollars of economic, military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

And this text also goes back to a 19ᵉ century law to clearly stipulate that the vice-president cannot intervene to prevent the certification of electoral results. 

Former President Trump had used the ambiguity of the old text to call on Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 results.

But what should be noted about the vote in the House of Representatives is that the vast majority of Republicans voted against it.

While in the Senate, the text was adopted in a bipartisan way.

Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spent more than half an hour criticizing the text.

A harbinger of partisan disputes that risk paralyzing the work of the House once the Republicans are in charge. 

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

• United States

• Joe Biden

• Finance