WASHINGTON — Facing a government shutdown deadline, the Senate early Saturday gave final approval to a bipartisan plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster relief, pushing back President-elect Donald Trump’s demands for an increase in the debt limits in the new year were scrapped.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had urged Congress to “meet our obligations” and not allow federal operations to shut down before the Christmas holidays. But the day’s outcome was uncertain after Trump doubled down on his insistence that a debt ceiling increase would be included in any deal — if not, he said in an early morning post, let the shutdowns “start now.”
The House overwhelmingly approved Johnson’s new bill, 366 to 34. The Senate worked late into the night to pass the bill 85 to 11, just past the deadline. At midnight, the White House said it had halted preparations for the shutdown.
Government workers had previously been told to prepare for a federal shutdown that would send millions of workers — and members of the military — into the holiday season without pay.
A looming government shutdown could hurt military families and veterans
“This is a good result for the country,” Johnson said after the vote in the House of Representatives, adding that he had spoken to Trump and that the president-elect was “certainly happy with this result as well.”
President Joe Biden, who has played a less public role in the process during a turbulent week, was expected to sign the measure into law on Saturday.
“There will be no government shutdown,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
The end product was the third attempt by Johnson, the beleaguered speaker of the House of Representatives, to meet one of the basic demands of the federal government: keeping it open. And it raised stark questions about whether Johnson will be able to keep his job despite angry Republican colleagues and work with Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk, who called the legislative plays from afar.
Trump’s last-minute demand was almost an impossible ask, and Johnson had almost no choice but to sidestep his push to raise the debt ceiling. The speaker knew there would not be enough support within the Republican majority to pass any financing package, as many Republican deficit hawks prefer to cut the federal government and certainly would not allow new debt.
Instead, Republicans, who will have full control of the White House, House of Representatives and Senate next year, with big plans for tax cuts and other priorities, are showing that they must routinely rely on Democrats for the votes that necessary to keep up with routine operations. of governing.
“So is this a Republican bill or a Democratic bill?” Musk mocked on social media ahead of the vote.
The drastically slimmed-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 agricultural aid to farmers.
Gone is Trump’s demand to lift the debt ceiling, which Republican leaders told lawmakers would be discussed as part of their tax and border packages in the new year. At the time, Republicans struck a so-called handshake deal to raise the debt limit while cutting spending by $2.5 trillion over 10 years.
It’s essentially the same deal that flopped the night before after a spectacular setback that most Democrats and some of the most conservative Republicans opposed — minus Trump’s demand for a debt ceiling.
But it is much smaller than the original bipartisan deal Johnson struck with Democratic and Republican leaders — a 1,500-page bill that Trump and Musk rejected, forcing him to start over. It was packed with a long list of other bills — including much-derided pay raises for lawmakers — but also other measures with broad bipartisan support that now have a tougher path to becoming law.
House Democrats were cool on the latest attempt after Johnson abandoned the hard-fought bipartisan compromise.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said it appeared Musk, the world’s richest man, was leading Trump and the Republicans.
“Who’s in charge?” she asked during the debate.
Still, Democrats cast more votes than Republicans in favor of the bill’s passage. Nearly three dozen conservative Republicans voted against it.
“House Democrats successfully stopped extreme MAGA Republicans from shutting down the government, crashing the economy, and hurting working-class Americans across the country,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, after the vote, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
The plan to avoid a government shutdown does not include additional VA funds
Trump, who has not yet been sworn in, is showing the power but also the limits of his influence over Congress as he intervenes and orchestrates matters from Mar-a-Lago alongside Musk, who heads the government’s new Department of Efficiency . .
The new Trump administration is promising to cut the federal budget and lay off thousands of workers, and is counting on Republicans for a major tax package. And Trump isn’t afraid of shutdowns the way lawmakers are, having caused the longest government shutdown in history during his first term in the White House.
“If there is going to be a government shutdown, let it start now,” Trump posted on social media early in the morning.
More important for the president-elect was his demand to push the thorny debt ceiling debate off the table before returning 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 saddled with tough negotiations in Congress to boost the country’s borrowing capacity. Now Johnson will be on the hook to deliver.
“Congress must eliminate the ridiculous debt ceiling, or extend it until perhaps 2029,” Trump said, increasing his demand for another five-year increase in the debt limit. “Without this we would never be able to close a deal.”
Biden has been in talks with Jeffries and Schumer, but White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Republicans have blown up this deal. They did that, and they need to fix this.”
As the day wore on, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell stepped in to remind colleagues “how damaging it is to shut down the government, and how foolish it is to bet that your own party won’t take the blame for it.” will take.”
At one point, Johnson asked Republicans in the House of Representatives for a show of hands during a lunch meeting as they tried to decide the path forward.
Not only was it the closing, but the speaker’s job was at stake. The speaker’s election is the first vote of the new Congress, which convenes on Jan. 3, and some Trump allies have put Musk forward as speaker.
Johnson said he spoke with Musk ahead of Friday’s vote and they discussed the “extraordinary challenges of this job.”
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Mary Clare Jalonick, Darlene Superville and Bill Barrow contributed to this report.
