Government shutdown updates: Biden signs stopgap funding measure

The president signed the 45-day bill on Saturday night.

ByAlexandra Hutzler, Nadine El-Bawab, and Meredith Deliso
Last Updated: September 30, 2023, 11:26 PM EDT

The U.S. seemed to be barreling toward what would have been one of the largest government shutdowns in history -- until a stopgap 45-day funding bill was hastily passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden on Saturday night, not long before the deadline.

Had lawmakers failed to reach an agreement, 3.5 million federal workers would have been expected to go without a paycheck, millions of women and children would have lost nutrition assistance, national parks would likely have closed and more.

The temporary legislation, which lasts until mid-November, affords more time for the House Republican majority and the Senate's Democratic majority to work out longer-term bills.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news developed. All times Eastern.
Sep 29, 2023, 3:36 PM EDT

White House says they're pleading with House GOP to 'do the right thing'

OMB Director Shalanda Young told ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang that to avert a shutdown, "we're doing everything we can to plead, beg, shame, House Republicans: do the right thing."

Asked to respond to the concerns of mothers who rely on WIC for their babies' nutrition, Young gave an impassioned response:

"The cavalierness is what gets me. I've heard people say in a Republican House conference, 'Oh, shutdown. It's not that bad. It's not like the debt ceiling.' Well, you go tell people who cannot pay their daycare bill ... You go tell men and women in uniform that they don't get a paycheck when they show up to work every day. You will tell that mother that she cannot … And you're right, it -- it sets an expectation for how people deal with their government throughout their lives."

Director of the Office of Budget and Management Shalanda Young speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 30, 2023.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Sep 29, 2023, 3:40 PM EDT

How did we get here?

Earlier this year, amid the threat of a first-ever default on the nation's debt, President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated a spending cap for the 2024 budget year beginning Oct. 1. But spending legislation remains mired in Congress with the hard-liners in the House insisting on curbing spending further and other proposals that couldn't pass the Senate.

A last-ditch effort by McCarthy to pass a short-term funding measure with border security measures to keep the government open until Oct. 31 failed on Friday. More than 20 Republicans voted against it.

The Democrat-led Senate is considering a separate stopgap bill to keep the government open until Nov. 17 as well as additional funding for Ukraine and FEMA, but McCarthy has already said it would be dead on arrival in the House.

Congress remained at a standstill Friday afternoon with the shutdown deadline roughly 32 hours away.

The U.S. Capitol Building is shown on Aug. 1, 2023 in Washington.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

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