00:00 Under the previous order requiring 60 votes for the passage of this bill, the bill is
00:04 passed.
00:07 Last gasp moves to prevent the US government shutdown took a dramatic step forward Saturday
00:12 as Democrats overwhelmingly backed an 11th hour Republican measure to keep federal funding
00:18 going for 45 days, albeit with a freeze on aid to Ukraine.
00:23 After chaotic days of turmoil in the House, Speaker Kevin McCarthy abruptly abandoned
00:28 demands for steep spending cuts from his right flank and instead relied on the Democrats
00:33 to pass the bill, at risk to his own job.
00:36 The Senate followed with final passage, closing a whirlwind day at the Capitol.
00:41 The stopgap proposal adopted by the House of Representatives with a vote of 335-91 was
00:46 pitched by Speaker Kevin McCarthy just hours before a midnight shutdown deadline that would
00:51 have seen millions of federal employees and military personnel sent home or required to
00:56 work without pay.
00:57 The deal still has to be approved by the Democrat-controlled Senate.
01:02 The outcome ends for now the threat of a shutdown, but the reprieve may be short-lived.
01:07 Congress will again need to fund the government in coming weeks, risking a crisis as views
01:11 are hardening, particularly among the right-flank lawmakers whose demands were ultimately swept
01:16 aside this time in favor of a more bipartisan approach.
01:20 If no deal was in place before Sunday, federal workers would have faced furloughs, more than
01:24 2 million active duty and reserve military troops would have had to work without pay,
01:29 and programs and services that Americans rely on from coast to coast would have begun to
01:33 face shutdown disruptions.
01:37 The proposed plan would keep the government funded at current levels without the hardline-backed
01:41 spending cuts that Democrats had viewed as a non-starter.
01:44 But the lack of assistance for Ukraine was problematic.
01:47 Arming and funding Ukraine in its desperate war against the Russian invasion has been
01:51 the key policy plan for President Joe Biden's administration, and while the stopgap is only
01:55 temporary, it does raise questions over the political viability of renewing the multibillion-dollar
02:00 flow of assistance.
02:02 The Democrat-controlled Senate had been prepared to vote on its own stopgap bill later Sunday,
02:07 one that did include funding for Ukraine.
02:09 After Friday's vote, Mr. McCarthy's chief Republican critic, Representative Matt Guides
02:14 of Florida, said that the Speaker's bill "went down in flames as I've told you all week it
02:19 would."
02:20 While many Republican holdouts, including Mr. Guides, are allies of former President
02:23 Donald Trump, who is Mr. Biden's chief rival in the 2024 race, Mr. Trump has been encouraging
02:28 the Republicans to fight hard for their priorities and even to shut it down.
02:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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