With hours to go before a midnight government shutdown, the House is voting on a new plan from House Speaker Mike Johnson that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid but drops President-elect Donald Trump’s demands for a debt limit increase into the new year.
Johnson insists Congress will “meet our obligations” and not allow federal operations to shutter ahead of the Christmas holiday season. But the outcome is uncertain.
Johnson declined to disclose the new idea under consideration, but lawmakers said it would fund the government at current levels through March and adds $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in agricultural assistance to farmers.
The vote comes ahead of a potential government shutdown at midnight.
Republican senators have expressed optimism their counterparts in the House will pass a bill to fund government.
“Depending on if the House can execute, I think we could probably tee everything out for later today,” said Sen. John Thune, who’ll take over as Senate majority leader in January.
“I think at this point, my view is we should accept whatever the House can pass,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.
“And given the time of year and proximity to Christmas, I don’t think people want to hang around here any longer than they have to. And we’re going to do this all over again in three months,” Cornyn continued.
“Right now it looks like we’ll probably get out by tomorrow,” said Sen. Thom Thillis of North Carolina. But he added that senators were mostly waiting for the House to order itself.
“The work’s in the House. We’re ready to go, we just need something to react to,” Tillis said.
President-elect Donald Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk played a key role this week in killing a bipartisan funding proposal that would have prevented a government shutdown, railing against the plan in more than 100 X posts that included multiple false claims.
Not only did the owner of the social platform X, an unelected figure, use his outsize influence on the platform to help sway Congress, he did so without regard for the facts and gave a preview of the role he could play over the next four years.
“Trump has got himself a handful with Musk,” said John Mark Hansen, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. “Trump’s done this kind of thing before, blowing up a bill at the last minute. This time, though, it looks like he was afraid of Musk upstaging him. Now there’s a new social media bully in town, pushing the champion social media bully around.” —(AP)
