U.S. senate takes first step to avert gov’t shutdown
美國參議院采取措施防止政府關閉

U.S. budget battles have created a lot of uncertainty for the markets in the past few years. Two big budget votes are scheduled for October which will determine whether the government can pay its bills. On Wednesday, the situation became a bit clearer as the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to clear a key procedural hurdle on passing a funding bill to avert a government shutdown in six days.

Despite the overwhelming support, the legislation still faces several hurdles that must be overcome as lawmakers in both parties work to avoid a partial shutdown. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Wednesday that the government will have exhausted its borrowing authority by October 17th, leaving the US just 30 billion dollars of cash on hand to pay its bills. To avoid a partial government shutdown, a single, agreed-upon legislation must be approved by Congress and signed by President Obama next Tuesday.