The US House of Representatives approved a bill on Tuesday to keep the federal government funded until the end of the US fiscal year, which ends on September 30. The session of the lower house of the US legislature was broadcast on its website.
The Senate must now vote on the initiative, after which it will go to the desk of US President Donald Trump, who has already supported it. The document contains provisions to increase defense spending by about $ 6 billion and reduce funding for non-defense government programs by about $ 13 billion.
The vote was held almost along party lines. The bill was supported by all Republicans except Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky. He had previously stated several times that he would not vote for the project. His position was sharply criticized by Trump. All Democrats except Jared Golden, a Republican from Maine, opposed the initiative. They refused to support the project because it did not limit the activities of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
In the Senate, the document will have to overcome the threshold of 60 votes, for which Republicans need the support of at least eight Democrats. Congress must approve it by the end of Friday. If the document is not approved by 11:59 p.m. on March 14, local time, a shutdown will occur - a number of government services and programs will be suspended, the salaries of hundreds of thousands of government employees will be temporarily suspended, and many of them will be sent on unpaid leave.
The bill to continue funding the federal government until March 14 was signed last December by former US President Joe Biden. Since 1977, such funding has been suspended more than 20 times due to disagreements between the administration and Congress. The longest period was 35 days, from December 22, 2018. until January 25, 2019, during Trump's first term.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to double planned tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% has prompted the Ontario provincial government to abandon its plans to impose additional taxes on electricity sold to the United States, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
As a result, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Trump had also abandoned his decision to double the tariffs, although the federal government still plans to impose a 25% levy on all steel and aluminum imports starting today.
Yesterday's escalation and later cooling in the ongoing U.S.-Canada trade war only deepened a growing sense of uncertainty about how Trump's tariff hikes will affect both countries' economies.
Yesterday morning, the US president surprised markets by saying he would increase tariffs that were set to take effect today in response to a 25 per cent increase by Ontario on electricity sold to the US.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said yesterday afternoon that he had agreed to waive the increase after a phone call with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.