US debt ceiling

 

Joe Biden and vote counting in the Senate.

  

US debt ceiling  

Biden signs compromise – US avoids shutdown  

 

With just hours to go before the deadline, President Joe Biden signed a compromise budget proposal that runs through Nov. 17, the AP reports. In this way, the US state apparatus does not have to shut down. 

 

- We have avoided an unnecessary crisis that would have caused unnecessary pain to millions of hard-working Americans, says the president.  

 

The compromise has been negotiated between Democrats and Republicans and means, among other things, that aid to Ukraine is scrapped. But Biden expects the support to be restored at a later date.  

 

"We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be suspended," Biden writes in a statement.

 

Bowman/Congress during the vote. AP 

US debt ceiling 

The member triggered the fire alarm before the vote  

Jamaal Bowman, a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives, set off a fire alarm in the Capitol as the chamber was set to vote on a temporary budget to avoid a shutdown. This is reported by AP.  

The building had to be evacuated. Bowman himself claims that it was not an attempted sabotage but an accident. His explanation is that he tried to open a door that is usually open, but now was closed because it is the weekend. 

- I thought it would help me get the door open, he tells reporters.  

That explanation is not bought by Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who calls it "embarrassing" and believes that Bowman should be punished.  

As the evacuation took place, Democrats worked to delay the vote because they needed time to read through the 71-page budget proposal rushed through by Republicans.  

The incident is now being investigated by the police.