A Republican spending bill backed by US President-elect Donald Trump failed in the US House of Representatives on Thursday, leaving Congress without a clear plan to avoid an impending government shutdown that could cripple Christmas travel.
By a vote of 174 to 235, the House rejected the spending package, which Republican leaders hastily assembled after Trump and billionaire Elon Musk scuttled an earlier bipartisan agreement.
Government funding is scheduled to end at midnight on Friday. If lawmakers fail to extend that deadline, the U.S. government will begin a partial shutdown that would cut funding for everything from border law enforcement to national parks and cut the paychecks of more than two million federal workers. The US Transportation Security Administration warned that travelers during the busy holiday season may face long lines at airports.
The bill is very similar to the previous version, which Musk and Trump criticized as a wasteful gift to Democrats. It was scheduled to extend government funding until March, when Trump will be in the White House and Republicans will control both chambers of Congress, and provide $100 billion in disaster relief and debt suspension. Republicans dropped other items that were included in the original package, such as pay increases for lawmakers and new rules for pharmacy benefits managers.
At Trump’s urging, the new version would also have suspended restrictions on the national debt for two years — a maneuver that would make it easier to pass the big tax cuts he promised and pave the way for the federal government’s $36 trillion in debt to continue. To climb.
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Before the vote, Democrats and Republicans warned that the other side would be wrong if Congress allowed a government shutdown.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters the package would avoid a filibuster, tie up loose ends and make it easier for lawmakers to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in spending when Trump takes office next year.
“The government is very big, it does a lot of things, and it only does a few things well,” he said.
The updated proposal is drawing criticism from Democrats and Republicans
Democrats have criticized the bill as a cover for a budget-busting tax cut that would largely benefit wealthy backers like Musk, the world’s richest person, while burdening the country with trillions of dollars in additional debt.
“How dare you lecture America about fiscal responsibility, ever?” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said during the debate.
Likewise, some Republicans objected that this would pave the way for more debt while failing to cut spending. “I’m absolutely disgusted by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy said.
Even if the bill had been approved in the House, it would have faced prolonged opposition in the Senate, which is currently controlled by Democrats. The White House said Democratic President Joe Biden does not support it.
Trump had urged lawmakers to vote in favor of the package and eliminate the debt ceiling before taking office on January 20.
Previous battles over the debt ceiling have spooked financial markets, as a US government default would send credit shocks around the world. That limit was suspended under an agreement that effectively expires on January 1, although lawmakers likely won’t have to address the issue before the spring.
When Trump returns to office, he aims to enact tax cuts that would reduce revenues by $8 trillion over a decade, which would push the debt higher without offsetting the spending cuts. He has pledged not to cut retirement and health benefits for seniors, which make up a large portion of the budget and are expected to grow significantly in the coming years.
The last government shutdown occurred in December 2018 and January 2019 during Trump’s first term in the White House.
The unrest also threatened to unseat Johnson, a Louisiana moderate who was unexpectedly thrust into the House speaker’s office last year after the party’s right wing voted out then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy over a government funding bill. Johnson repeatedly had to turn to Democrats to help pass legislation when he couldn’t get votes from his party.
He tried the same maneuver on Thursday, but failed this time.
Many Republicans have said they will not vote for Johnson as president when Congress returns in January, potentially igniting another tumultuous leadership battle in the weeks before Trump takes office.
