By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-12-19 21:21:35 | Updated at 2024-12-20 05:35:19
8 hours ago
Republicans in the US Congress said on Thursday they had crafted a new spending package to avert a looming government shutdown after president-elect Donald Trump scuttled a prior bipartisan deal.
“There’s an agreement,” Republican congressman Tom Cole, who chairs a committee that oversees spending, told reporters.
Details were not immediately available, and it was not clear whether it would get enough support from Republicans and Democrats to pass Congress before funding expires at midnight on Friday.
It also was not clear whether it would win Trump’s backing. The incoming US president has demanded that lawmakers tie up loose ends before he takes office on January 20 and has called on them to abolish the nation’s debt ceiling.
Unless a deal passes the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Democratic-majority Senate, the US government will begin a partial shutdown on Saturday that would interrupt funding for everything from border enforcement to law enforcement in the days leading up to Christmas and cut off pay cheques for more than 2 million federal workers.
The US Transportation Security Administration warned that travellers could face long lines at airports.
