WASHINGTON – The partial government shutdown is over.
On Wednesday, Congress passed a measure to reopen the federal government and also avert a threatened U.S. default, a move intended to end a prolonged fiscal crisis that gripped the U.S. and threatened the world economy.
At the 11th hour, both the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate and Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved the plan, with the Senate passing the measure by 81 votes to 18 and the House 285 votes to 144. President Barack Obama also signed the bill before Thursday’s deadline and he applauded leaders in the U.S. Senate, who authored the compromise.
But the deal only offers a temporary fix for the next three months and does not resolve the fundamental issues of spending and deficits that divide Republicans and Democrats. The new measure will fund the government until January 15, 2014 and raise the debt ceiling until February 7 – which means Americans face the possibility of another government shutdown early next year
President Obama said his intentions now are to move forward and work on new bills, including reforming the “broken” immigration system, passing a farm bill, and working on a “sensible” budget.
House Speaker John Boehner – who was fighting any spending bill which also included funding for Obamacare, said that he and other Republicans in the House “fought the good fight and did not win,” but added that they were not giving up on the fight to bring down U.S. debt and cripple the president’s signature health care overhaul.
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