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Joe Biden: The US President is urging Congress to pass new aid for Ukraine
Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP
But no budget freeze in the USA: President Joe Biden has signed the budget package negotiated in Congress, thus averting a standstill in government business. The White House announced this on Saturday. The law will finance the U.S. government's operations in the current fiscal year through the end of September.
"This agreement represents a compromise, meaning that neither side got everything it wanted," said Biden. But the “extreme cuts” in the budget that Republicans had demanded did not come through. Biden simultaneously urged Congress to pass new aid for Ukraine and a migration law to protect the border.
Theoretically, the deadline for a shutdown had already passed
The now passed 1.2 trillion US dollar (around 1.1 trillion euros) budget package finances a large part of the US government's business. The budget package includes, among other things, funds for defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the Ministry of Labor - but it does not include new financial aid from the USA for Ukraine. A corresponding legislative package is currently stuck in the House of Representatives.
The US Congress passed the trillion-dollar package with a vote in the Senate on Saturday night. Theoretically, the deadline for a shutdown has already passed at midnight US Eastern Time - but in practice there has been no standstill in government business. The White House had ordered agencies to continue operating as passage of a budget bill was underway.
The budget that has now been passed also continues to suspend funding for the Palestinian relief organization UNRWA. Most recently, Israeli allegations that individual employees of the UN organization were involved in the massacre by the Islamist Hamas in Israel on October 7th led to the withdrawal of international aid funds. Several Western countries then temporarily stopped payments to UNRWA, including the USA.
spr/dpa