WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a short-term bill Friday evening to prevent a government shutdown, just hours before a deadline that would force U.S. troops, Border Patrol agents, air traffic controllers and millions of other federal employees to work without pay during the holidays.
The vote was 366 to 34, with all opposition coming from Republicans and one voting member present. It capped a tumultuous week in the House of Representatives, foreshadowing how the new Congress might deal with a volatile Donald Trump in the White House in January. A two-thirds majority was needed because the bill was tabled through an accelerated process.
The legislation now heads to the Senate, which must pass it by 12:01 a.m. to avoid a shutdown.
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The package funds the government at current levels through March 14, and includes $100 billion in disaster aid and a one-year farm bill — while scrapping an extension of the debt limit demanded by President-elect Trump earlier this week.
On Wednesday, Trump had threatened to preempt “any Republican” who voted for a funding bill without an extension of the debt limit; on Friday, 170 Republicans in the House of Representatives did just that.
“We are very grateful that this evening, in a bipartisan manner and by an overwhelming majority, we passed the American Relief Act of 2025. This is a very important piece of legislation,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters afterward. the mood. “It obviously funds the government until March 2025. That was a big priority for us.”
He promised that “things will be very different here” next year when Trump returns and Republicans take the Senate.
Just three days ago, the bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate struck a deal to keep the lights on in the government, but Trump and his billionaire confidante Elon Musk killed the deal by pushing for it at the eleventh hour to insist that the debt limit should be extended or abolished to make way for Trump’s agenda next year.
A backup plan — scaled down from the original deal and approved by Trump and Musk — then went up in flames in the House of Representatives, under fire from both Democrats and 38 Republicans who objected to the debt extension.
That left Johnson, who is fighting to retain his speakership, with few good options. After working privately with rank-and-file Republicans for more than two hours, Johnson told his party he was moving ahead with Plan C: the same package mooted a day earlier, but without Trump’s debt increase.
Earlier Friday, leaders proposed splitting the package into three separate parts and letting lawmakers vote on it individually on the floor, according to Republican sources familiar with the plan. But the one-package proposal was seen as an easier solution as the clock ticks down.
As he left the private GOP meeting, Johnson told reporters there would be no shutdown and that Republicans in the House of Representatives are “united.”
“We will not have a government shutdown, and we will meet our obligations to our farmers who need help, to disaster victims across the country, and to ensure that military and essential services and all who rely on federal government for a The salary is paid during the holidays,” Johnson said.
Newly-elected President Donald Trump is silent about the new financing plan for the time being.
Johnson said he spoke with both Trump and Musk on Friday. “I have spoken extensively with President Trump and he knows exactly what we are doing,” the speaker said.
Musk appeared to endorse the plan as the House of Representatives was voting, writing on his social media site
The president-elect had chosen to remain silent on the bill, according to another source familiar with his thinking. Trump’s preference was still to tackle the debt ceiling, that source said, adding: “Johnson should have listened when the president-elect told him this a month ago. And in every conversation since.”
But Trump might be willing to score a “win” on a financing deal that cuts a significant portion of what he saw as “pork,” the source continued, noting that the process gave Trump’s team insight in where the voices within both parties are in favor of trade. with the debt limit next year.
To sidestep Trump’s last-minute demand to raise the debt ceiling, Republicans have instead agreed to cut more than $2 trillion in government spending and likely include a debt increase in a reconciliation package next year, several lawmakers said.
Johnson was in a political dilemma: He couldn’t pass a bill without Democrats, who still control the Senate and the White House and were determined not to give in to Trump’s last-minute demands. But he still needed to maintain support within his conference or risk jeopardizing his chances of being re-elected as chairman in two weeks’ time, on January 3, with a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives.
“This is a defining moment for his career as a speaker,” Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., a Johnson critic, said before the vote. “What he does and how he handles it, how he handles our conference … will determine who he is, whether he is a serious leader and whether he will survive this leadership vote.”
Jeffries said Friday that Trump was rushing to set aside the debt limit so Republicans can pass a tax cut for the wealthy next year.
“A painful government shutdown that will crash the economy and hurt the American working class because they would rather pass massive tax cuts for their billionaire donors than fund cancer research for children,” Jeffries said, referring to a provision in the original deal that GOP leaders had set up. undressed.
Senate Democrats had called on Johnson to return to the bipartisan deal that Trump and Musk blew up.
“It’s time to go back to the original agreement we had a few days ago. It’s time for that. It’s time for the House to vote on our bipartisan CR [continuing resolution]Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DY, said on the floor Friday. “It’s the fastest, simplest, and easiest way we can ensure the government stays open while delivering critical relief to the American people.”
In the midst of the battle, Democrats believe they have found a populist economic message to sway voters to their side, portraying Musk as an oligarch who pulled Trump’s strings.
“I am prepared to stay here all Christmas because we will not let Elon Musk run the government,” Senate President Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement. “Simply put, we should not allow an unelected billionaire to rip away childhood cancer research so he can get a tax cut.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
