The President of the United States, Joe Biden, called the four leaders of Congress to a meeting this Tuesday (27) when he intends to establish the basis for a financing agreement that avoids a partial government shutdown from Friday, 1st of March.
At the same time, he will try to move forward with the approval of new aid to Ukraine, a project that is stalled in the House, with a Republican majority.
As a result, the deadline is tight. Funding for areas such as military construction, water development and the departments of agriculture, energy, veterans affairs, transportation, housing and urban development expire this week, while the remaining eight spending bills have an expiration date of March 8.
The meeting will be attended by the president of the House, Mike Johnson, and the Senate, Chuck Schumer, and the minority leaders in both Houses, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, and Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries.
Furthermore, The Hill website recalls that the meeting comes after Schumer and Johnson attacked each other over the weekend, blaming each other for the delay in announcing the appropriations bills.
In addition to the important issue of government funding, Biden has been calling on Congress for weeks to approve additional aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia, warning that an inaction at this time would be a historic failure that could threaten both global and domestic security.
It is worth remembering that the Senate earlier this month overwhelmingly approved funding for national security that included money for Ukraine, Israel and Indo-Pacific allies, but the House went into recess before voting on the issue, trying to include it in the bill measures of security measures at the country’s borders, a demand from the most radical wing of the Republican Party.
It is believed that Biden will use the difficult moment in the relationship with the Chamber in his State of the Union speech, scheduled for March 7 and which should mark the official start of his campaign aimed at re-election.
