WASHINGTON — Congress struck an 11th-hour deal to avert a government shutdown over the holidays, but in the process extended an already extensive to-do list for the first year after President-elect Donald Trump’s return.
The financing law keeps the government open until March 14. Even though Republicans will control the White House, House of Representatives and Senate, they will need Democratic votes again to avoid a shutdown in less than three months.
Moreover, Trump’s demand that Congress extend or abolish the debt ceiling and take it off his plate next year failed dramatically. On Wednesday, he threatened electoral primaries against “any Republican” who voted to fund the government without addressing the debt limit. On Friday, 170 Republicans in the House of Representatives defied him and did just that.
The week’s unrest is a preview of the legislative chaos awaiting Washington in the second Trump administration, as the incoming president faces a wide range of key deadlines and ambitions.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Republicans made a mistake by pushing back funding to March 14 and should instead have passed a stopgap bill until the end of September to clear their plate for Trump’s agenda.
“I think it’s a bit stupid,” he said of the new deadline. “Don’t ask me to explain or defend this dysfunction.”
Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said late Friday that the “lesson” of the past few days is: “Unity is our strength. Division is the enemy of the conservative cause.”
He advised Trump and his team to avoid such a situation in the future by submitting legislative demands “early” so that the Republican Party can express “any disagreements that may exist” well before a deadline.
“The House needs to over-communicate within our various factions,” Barr said. “The House needs to over-communicate with [incoming Senate] Majority Leader [John] Thune, the House of Representatives and the Senate both have to communicate too much with the government.’
Communication has been particularly poor over the past four days. A day after Chairman Mike Johnson announced an initial bipartisan deal, Trump and his billionaire confidante Elon Musk blew it up. The speaker went through three additional iterations of his plan to avoid a shutdown, ultimately succeeding after rejecting Trump’s most consequential — and last-minute — demand.
“I’m concerned,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who is up for re-election in 2026. “Obviously we’ve seen this kind of chaos over the last two years. So I expect this to continue over the next two years and probably get worse.”
On Thursday evening, Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., downplayed what he called a “disjointed process,” saying it is a natural way for House Republicans and Trump’s team to understand “how they interact with each other.” need to communicate’.
“It’s going to be great. Do you know why it’s going to be great? Because we now know how to work together,” Van Orden said just before Speaker Johnson’s Plan B went up in flames in the House of Representatives.
Van Orden’s fellow Wisconsinite, Senator Johnson, was less optimistic about the smooth passage of the first part of the 2025 agenda.
“We’re in a big mess, there’s no doubt about it,” Johnson said. “That’s why I try to under-promise and hopefully over-deliver.”
In addition to a new government funding deadline and a debt limit that must be addressed by mid-2025 to avoid a disastrous default, Trump and Republicans must confirm his staff through the Senate and pass major party bills to shore up the budget. immigration enforcement and extends his expiring 2017 tax law.
“It won’t be boring,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, deadpanned when asked about the tasks ahead of Congress next year.
There is also the question of Musk’s role after his part in scuttling the original bipartisan financing deal caused a stir on Capitol Hill.
“Many people on both sides of the aisle are deeply disturbed by a billionaire who threatens people if they don’t vote the right way,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich.
Last week’s tumult “foreshadows something very ominous for next year,” Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said after the House vote, noting that the Republican majority in the House will be even smaller next year. will be.
“I think we’re in for a lot of turbulence on the Republican side of the House of Representatives because of the instability, chaos and disruption that Trump is embracing,” Connolly said.
He also wondered whether Republicans will be able to choose a chairman with a razor-thin majority on January 3; At the start of the last Congress, it took fifteen rounds of votes to elect a chairman, and some far-right Republicans are shaky with Chairman Johnson after his handling of the shutdown threat this week.
“So I leave tonight feeling very uneasy about what we’ve just experienced,” Connolly said before the House adjourned for the holidays. “I think it’s very ominous, and it’s ominous.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
