At the last minute

Trump can breathe a sigh of relief: shutdown in the USA averted

Budget bill passed: A shutdown in the USA has thus been averted.

(Bild: TASOS KATOPODIS)

The US parliament has passed a transitional budget, averting the threat of a government shutdown. After the House of Representatives, a majority in the Senate also voted in favor of a Republican budget bill. 

Several Democratic senators rather reluctantly helped the bill over the decisive formal hurdle with their votes - despite their opposition to the course of Republican President Donald Trump.

Last-minute solution
As is often the case in budget negotiations in the USA, the solution was reached at the last minute. Without the vote, the so-called shutdown mode would have kicked in on Saturday night: a freeze on all federal spending in the US administration. As a result, some state institutions would have had to suspend their work and many civil servants would not have received a salary for the time being. This will not happen now. Trump still has to sign the law in order for it to come into force. This is considered a formality.

US President Donald Trump

(Bild: AP/Evan Vucci)

The wrangling over the budget
The adoption of the budget regularly leads to fierce political wrangling in the USA. Parliament often only agrees on a draft at the very last moment and often moves from one transitional budget to the next. Disputes on various topics are regularly fought over the budget.

This time too, it was unclear for some time whether the Democrats would block the draft - in protest against Trump's radical course since he took office. The Republicans do have a majority in the 100-member Senate with 53 seats. However, at least 60 senators in the chamber must agree to bring most bills to a vote at all - as is the case here.

Ten Democrats helped the budget bill, accompanied by internal party controversies, to cross this threshold with their votes, while one Republican senator voted against it. In the final vote, a simple majority was ultimately sufficient. The draft budget will apply until the end of the financial year at the end of September.

Controversy among the Democrats
The most senior Democrat in the Senate, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, had relented shortly before the vote and argued that a government shutdown would only play into Trump's hands. The Republican and his confidant, tech billionaire Elon Musk, wanted a shutdown to create further chaos and distract from their agenda, Schumer wrote in a guest article for the New York Times on the eve of the vote. A government shutdown would above all harm families in the country.

The highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer

(Bild: TASOS KATOPODIS)

Shortly before, Schumer had announced his faction's grandiose opposition to the Republicans' budget proposal. His zigzag course and backpedalling earned him fierce criticism in his own party.

Some Democrats had just seen blocking the budget as a means of resisting Trump's course and his government cuts. However, a government shutdown, which would have affected many already hard-pressed federal employees and ultimately also ordinary citizens, is not very popular with the population. Other Democrats therefore spoke out against allowing such a government shutdown through a budget blockade.

Trump's march through and the powerlessness of the Democrats
The US President is currently firing federal employees who do not toe his line on a grand scale and is rigorously restructuring the state apparatus: Among other things, Trump has largely halted development aid and wants to completely abolish the Department of Education in the federal government. These are just some of the many controversial domestic and foreign policy decisions made in his first weeks in office. The Democratic Party's resistance to Trump's policies has so far been rather helpless. They are speaking out with dramatic warnings, but have not yet found a political way to oppose Trump. So far, resistance has mainly come from the courts.