Breaking News:US Senate Passes Bill to Reopen Govenment

US House passes bill to reopen
government
Last updated : 4 hours ago
Congress passes measure to avert a threatened
US default and reopens the federal government .
Congress has passed a measure to avert a
threatened US default and reopen the federal
government , a move intended to end a prolonged
fiscal crisis that gripped Washington and
threatened the world economy .
The deal , however, offers only a temporary fix and
does not resolve the fundamental issues of
spending and deficits that divide Republicans
and Democrats. It funds the government until
January 15 and raises the debt ceiling until
February 7 , so Americans face the possibility of
another government shutdown early next year .
Both the Democrat -controlled Senate and
Republican- controlled House of Representatives
approved the plan, with the Senate passing the
measure by 81 votes to 18 and the House 285
votes to 144 .
President Barack Obama will sign the bill before
Thursday's deadline for Congress to increase the
federal debt limit .
Obama applauded the Senate compromise and
said he was ready to sign it into law . Speaking at
the White House Wednesday evening , he said that
they could " begin to lift this cloud of uncertainty
and unease from our businesses and from the
American people" .
" We need to get out of the habit of governing by
crisis ," Obama said , speaking at the White House .
He announced his intentions to move forward this
year and work on new bills, including reforming
the " broken " immigration system, passing a farm
bill , and working on a "sensible " budget .
But House Speaker John Boehner did not agree to
the move quietly .
Although he said that he and his fellow
Republicans " fought the good fight and did not
win " , he added that they were not giving up on
the fight to bring down US debt and cripple the
president' s signature health care overhaul .
" Our drive to stop the train wreck that is the
president' s health care law will continue ,"
Boehner said in a statement .
Refusing a ' ransom'
With the deal announced, US stock indexes
jumped by more than one percent in trading late
in the day .
Reid thanked McConnell for working with him to
end what had become one of the nastiest
partisan battles in recent Washington history.
" This is a time for reconciliation," he said.
A long line of polls charted a steep decline in
public approval for Republicans , who were left
with little to show for their fight; in political
terms, the final agreement was almost entirely
along lines Obama had set when the impasse
began last month .
The crisis began on October 1 with a partial
shutdown of the federal government after House
Republicans refused to accept a temporary
funding measure unless Obama agreed to defund
or delay his health care law .
It escalated when House Republicans also refused
to move on needed approval for raising the
amount of money the Treasury can borrow to pay
US bills, raising the specter of a catastrophic
default .
Obama vowed repeatedly not to pay a "ransom"
in order to get Congress to pass normally routine
legislation .
The hard -right "Tea Party " faction of House
Republicans , urged on by conservative Texas
Republican Ted Cruz in the Senate , had seen
both deadlines as weapons that could be used to
gut Obama ' s Affordable Care Act, designed to
provide tens of millions of uninsured Americans
with coverage .
But Cruz said after the deal was announced that
he would not block the vote , a key concession
that signaled that both houses would act by
day 's end.