Washington In an attempt to prevent a shutdown hours before a deadline that would require millions of federal employees, including air traffic controllers, border patrol agents, and U.S. troops, to work unpaid over the holidays, House Republican leaders on Friday advanced a fresh plan.
Bipartisan House and Senate leaders reached a deal just three days ago to keep the government running, but President-elect Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk sabotaged the agreement at the last minute, demanding that the debt limit be extended or eliminated to accommodate Trump’s agenda for the following year.
Stay tuned for real-time updates.
On the House floor, a backup plan that Trump and Musk had supported was thwarted by Democrats and 38 Republicans who opposed the debt extension.
Now, embattled Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who is battling to maintain his position as leader, is pursuing Plan C: Two people with knowledge of the proposal told NBC News that they passed a single package that stripped out Trump’s debt limit extension and funded the government through March 14 while also passing a farm bill and disaster aid.
After discussing their limited alternatives in a two-hour meeting behind closed doors on Friday afternoon, Republicans laid out their plan. GOP sources familiar with the plan said that earlier in the day, leaders considered splitting the package into three sections and having members vote on each one separately on the floor. However, with time running out, the one-package approach was viewed as an easier lift.
Johnson assured reporters that there will not be a shutdown as he left the private GOP meeting, adding that House Republicans are “unified.” While his deputy, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., stated that a vote on the revised proposal is “very likely” to take place in the House later Friday, he promised to release additional specifics shortly.
“We will not have a government shutdown, and we will meet our obligations for our farmers who need aid, for the disaster victims all over the country, and for making sure that military and essential services and everyone who relies upon the federal government for a paycheck is paid over the holidays,” Johnson stated.
After chatting earlier Friday, Johnson will tell Trump on the new proposal, according to two people with firsthand knowledge of the matter.
Another source familiar with the president-elect’s thinking says he is so far refusing to comment on House GOP proposals. According to that source, Trump still wants to handle the debt ceiling, and Johnson ought to have paid attention when the president-elect informed him of this a month ago. and in all subsequent discussions.
However, Trump might be prepared to accept a victory on a funding agreement that eliminates a sizable portion of what he perceived as pork,” the source added, adding that the procedure provided Trump’s team with information on the party’s vote positions over the debt ceiling for the following year.
At this stage, there is no assurance that important components of the proposal will be approved by the Senate or the House or signed into law by President Joe Biden.
As he departed a meeting with House Democrats, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters that the lines of communication have been restored, but he did not pledge his support.
The federal government will most certainly shut down into the weekend, if not during the Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s holidays, as the Senate, which is known for its glacial pace, may take days to debate and vote on any House funding bill.
However, Johnson faces a significant obstacle: Democrats, who still own the Senate and the White House and are adamant about refusing to budge on Trump’s last-minute demands, will not allow him to pass a law. Johnson’s chances of winning a slim House majority and getting re-elected as speaker in two weeks, on January 3, may be in jeopardy if he is unable to meet Trump’s demands.
“This is a defining moment for his career as speaker,” Johnson critic Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., stated. “What he does and how he handles this, how he handles our conference … will define who he is, if he is a serious leader, and if he’s going to survive this leadership vote.”
Jeffries claimed on Friday that Trump was hurrying to put the debt ceiling aside so that Republicans could enact a tax reduction for the rich the next year.
“A painful government shutdown that will crash the economy and hurt working class Americans, because they would rather enact massive tax cuts for their billionaire donors than fund cancer research for children,” Jeffries said, alluding to a clause that GOP leaders had removed from the original agreement.
Johnson has been urged by Senate Democrats to rejoin the bipartisan agreement that Trump and Musk ripped up.
We need to return to our first agreement from a few days ago. Time for it. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, stated on the House floor Friday that it was time for the House to vote on our bipartisan CR [continuing resolution]. It’s the quickest, easiest, and most straightforward approach to ensure that the government remains open while providing the American people with vital emergency relief.
By portraying Musk as an oligarch who is manipulating Trump, Democrats think they have discovered a populist economic message to win over voters in the middle of the conflict.
We’re not going to let Elon Musk run the country, so I’m willing to remain here till Christmas, Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement. In other words, we shouldn’t allow an unelected billionaire to undermine pediatric cancer research in order to receive a tax break.
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