Confronting a Government shutdown On deadline, the Senate rushed to final passage early Saturday of a bipartisan plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, bringing down the president-elect. Donald Trump Demands to increase the debt limit in the new year.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson She insisted that Congress “will fulfill our obligations” and will not allow federal operations to be shut down before the Christmas holiday season. But today’s outcome was uncertain after Trump doubled down on his insistence that A Debt ceiling The increase would be included in any deal — if not, he said in an early morning post, let the lockdowns begin “now.”
The House approved Johnson’s new bill overwhelmingly, by 366 votes to 34. The Senate worked into the night to pass it by a vote of 85 to 11, just after the deadline. At midnight, the White House said it had halted preparations for the shutdown.
“This is a good outcome for the country,” Johnson said after the House vote, adding that he spoke with Trump and the president-elect “was certainly happy with that outcome as well.”
president Joe BidenHe, who has played a less public role in the process throughout a tumultuous week, is expected to sign the measure into law on Saturday.
“There will be no government shutdown,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
The final product was the third attempt by Johnson, the embattled Speaker of the House, to achieve one of the basic requirements of the federal government — keeping it open. This raised stark questions about whether Johnson would be able to retain his position, facing angry colleagues in the Republican Party, and working alongside Trump and his billionaire ally. Elon MuskWho called legislative plays from afar.
Trump’s last-minute request was nearly impossible, and Johnson had almost no choice but to overcome his pressure to increase the debt ceiling. The speaker knew that there would not be enough support within the GOP majority to pass any financing package, since many Republican deficit hawks favored cutting the federal government and certainly would not allow more debt.
Instead, Republicans, who will take full control of the White House, House and Senate next year, with big plans for tax cuts and other priorities, show they must routinely rely on Democrats for the votes needed to keep up with routine operations. From the ruling.
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“So is this a Republican bill or a Democratic bill?” Musk mocked on social media before the vote.
The significantly pared-down 118-page package would fund the government at current levels through March 14 and add $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in farm aid for farmers.
Trump’s demand to raise the debt ceiling, which GOP leaders told lawmakers would be discussed as part of tax and border packages in the new year, has ended. Republicans made the so-called handshake deal to raise the debt limit at that time while also cutting spending by $2.5 trillion over 10 years.
It’s essentially the same deal that failed the night before in a stunning setback — opposed by most Democrats and some more conservative Republicans — minus Trump’s debt ceiling demand.
But it is much smaller than the original bipartisan agreement Johnson reached with Democratic and Republican leaders, a 1,500-page bill that Trump and Musk rejected, forcing him to start over. It was filled with a long list of other bills — including the much-mocked pay raises for lawmakers — but also other measures with broad bipartisan support that now have a more difficult path to becoming law.
House Democrats were cool to the latest effort after Johnson backed away from the hard-fought bipartisan compromise.
Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said it appears that Musk, the richest man in the world, is the one making decisions for Trump and Republicans.
“Who’s in charge?” she asked during the discussion.
However, House Democrats put forward more votes than Republicans to pass the bill. Nearly three dozen conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against it.
“House Democrats have succeeded in preventing extreme Republicans from shutting down the government, collapsing the economy, and harming working-class Americans across the country,” the House Democratic leader said. Hakeem Jeffries In reference to Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again.”
In the Senate, almost all of the opposition came from Republicans — with the exception of independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said Musk’s interference “is not democracy, it’s oligarchy.”
Trump, who has not yet been sworn in, is showing his power but also the limits of his influence in Congress, where he intervenes and regulates affairs from Mar-a-Lago alongside Trump. MuskWho heads the new government efficiency department.
The incoming Trump administration pledged to do so Cut the federal budget and fire thousands of employees He is counting on Republicans to get a big tax package. Trump is not afraid of lockdowns as lawmakers fear, after he ignited the crisis The longest government shutdown in history In his first term in the White House.
“If there is a government shutdown, start now,” Trump wrote early in the morning on social media.
More important for the president-elect is his demand to advance reforms Debt ceiling debate thorny From the table before his return to the White House. The federal debt limit expires on January 1, and Trump does not want the first months of his new administration to be burdened by difficult negotiations in Congress to raise the country’s borrowing capacity. Now Johnson will be on the hook to deliver.
“Congress should get rid of the ridiculous debt ceiling, or perhaps extend it through 2029,” Trump said, adding to his demand for a new five-year increase in debt limits. “Without this, we should never make a deal.”
Government employees have already been told to prepare for a federal shutdown that would send millions of employees into custody — and Army personnel – During the holiday season without salaries.
Biden was in discussions with Jefferies and Schumer, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Republicans have blown this deal.” “They did this, and they need to fix this.”
As the day wore on, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell stepped in to remind his colleagues “how damaging a government shutdown would be, and how foolish it is to bet that your side won’t take the blame for it.”
At one point, Johnson asked House Republicans in a lunchtime meeting for a show of hands as they tried to choose a way forward.
It was not just the closure, but the speaker’s job at stake. The election of the Speaker of the Council is the first vote of the new Congress, which meets on January 3, and some of Trump’s allies have put Musk forward for the position of Speaker of the Council.
Johnson said he spoke to Musk before the vote on Friday and they talked about the “extraordinary challenges of this job.”
