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The U.S. Senate approved a temporary budget on Friday that prevents the federal government from shutting down, also known as a government shutdown.
The bill, which funds the U.S. federal government until the end of the current fiscal year on September 30, was supported by President Donald Trump, who must now sign it into law. However, the bill faced severe criticism from the Democratic opposition, which condemned the significant cuts to certain areas of public spending, totaling more than $7 billion.
U.S. federal agencies faced the risk of a shutdown on Friday after Democrats, angered by the spending cuts approved by Trump, threatened to block his federal funding plans.
Democrats backed down from their position in a crisis fueled by their anger over Trump’s campaign to reduce the number of employees in the federal government.
After days of heated debate, Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer resolved the crisis on Thursday evening, stating that he would vote to allow the bill to pass.
He added that while he wasn’t fond of the bill, he believed starting a government shutdown would be worse, especially as Trump and his advisor Elon Musk are rapidly pushing for spending cuts.
During this period, up to 900,000 federal employees could be temporarily laid off, while another million considered essential workers, from air traffic controllers to police officers, would work without pay.
