The United States government could face a temporary shutdown at midnight Friday if Congress does not approve a stopgap spending bill.
This comes as President-elect Donald Trump pressures lawmakers to reject the proposed legislation and act on the nation’s debt ceiling before he assumes office on January 20, according to Reuters.
Congress is required to allocate funding to 438 government agencies by October 1, the start of the fiscal year. However, lawmakers frequently miss this deadline and instead pass temporary bills to keep the government running. The current stopgap funding bill is set to expire on Saturday.
Both Republicans and Democrats have put forward proposals to extend the deadline to March 14. However, Trump has urged his Republican colleagues to vote against this extension.
The debt ceiling, which caps the amount the US government can borrow, must also be addressed. With the government spending more than it collects in tax revenue, lawmakers must periodically deal with this issue, though many are reluctant to approve additional debt.
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