The Senate approved the legislation earlier Wednesday in a 78-20 vote, and Obama signed it into law that evening. All 20 ânoâ votes in the Senate came from Republicans, though Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), both running for president, missed the vote. Without action by Congress, the federal government would have shut down on Thursday, the beginning of a new fiscal year.
A buffer is made by mixing a large volume of a weak acid or weak base together with its conjugate. A weak acid and its conjugate base can remain in solution without neutralizing each other.
The goal of a buffer solution is to help maintain a stable pH when a small amount of acid or base is introduced into a solution. A phosphate buffer solution is a handy buffer to have around, especially for biological applications. Because phosphoric acid has multiple dissociation constants, you can prepare phosphate buffers near any of the three pHs, which are at 2.15, 6.86 and 12.32.