Tuesday, December 24

House passes bill to avoid a shutdown, sending it to the Senate hours before the deadline

Washington Just hours before a deadline that would have forced millions of federal employees, including air traffic controllers, border patrol agents, and U.S. troops, to work unpaid over the holidays, the Republican-controlled House on Friday night passed a short-term resolution to prevent a government shutdown.

With one member present, the vote ended a turbulent week in the House that hinted at how the incoming Congress would handle a volatile Donald Trump in the White House come January. The vote was 366-34. The law was introduced via a fast-track procedure, which required a two-thirds vote.

In order to prevent a shutdown, the proposal must now clear the Senate by 12:01 a.m.

Stay tuned for real-time updates.

The plan eliminates the debt limit extension that President-elect Trump had wanted earlier in the week, includes an agricultural bill and disaster help, and supports the government at existing levels through March 14.

Bipartisan House and Senate leaders reached a compromise just three days ago to keep the government running, but Trump and his billionaire friend Elon Musk sabotaged the accord at the last minute, insisting that the debt limit be extended or eliminated to accommodate Trump’s agenda for the following year.

A backup plan that was trimmed from the original agreement and supported by Musk and Trump was thwarted on the House floor by Democrats and 38 Republicans who opposed the debt extension.

As a result, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who is battling to maintain his position as leader, had few viable choices. Johnson informed his party that he was moving on with Plan C, the same package that was presented to the floor the day before but without Trump’s debt hike, after spending more than two hours in private negotiations with rank-and-file Republicans.

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GOP sources familiar with the idea say that on Friday, leaders proposed splitting the package into three parts and allowing legislators to vote on each one separately on the floor. However, with time running out, the one-package plan was perceived as a simpler lift.

Johnson assured reporters as he left the private GOP gathering that House Republicans are united and that there will not be a shutdown.

Johnson declared that there would not be a government shutdown and that we would fulfill our responsibilities to our farmers in need of assistance, to the victims of disasters across the nation, and to ensure that the military and other vital services, as well as all those who depend on the federal government for their paychecks, are paid over the holidays.

Johnson claimed to have had conversations with Musk and Trump on Friday. “I’ve had extensive conversations with President Trump, and he is fully aware of our plans,” the speaker stated.

As the House voted, Musk seemed to support the plan, posting on his social media platform, X, that Johnson performed well in this situation considering the situation.

Another source acquainted with the president-elect’s thinking said he had decided to say nothing about the bill. According to the 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.

The source said that the process provided Trump’s team with information about the party’s vote positions for addressing the debt ceiling next year, suggesting that Trump would be open to accepting a victory on a financing agreement that eliminates a sizable portion of what he perceived as pork.

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According to some senators, Republicans have agreed to cut more than $2 trillion in government spending and tuck a debt raise likely in a reconciliation package next year in order to circumvent Trump’s last-minute demand of lifting the debt ceiling.

Johnson was in a difficult situation since Democrats, who still controlled the Senate and the White House, were unwilling to budge on Trump’s last-minute demands, making it impossible for him to pass a law without their support. He still needs to keep his conference on board, though, or else he could endanger his chances of winning a slim House majority and being re-elected speaker on January 3.

This is a turning point in his career as a speaker, according to Johnson critic Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga. His actions, his handling of this, his handling of our conference, etc., will determine his identity, whether he is a serious leader, and whether he will be able 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.

Jeffries referred to a clause in the original agreement that GOP leaders had removed, saying, “They would rather enact massive tax cuts for their billionaire donors than fund cancer research for children, which will cause a painful government shutdown that will crash the economy and hurt working class Americans.”

Johnson had been urged by Senate Democrats to rejoin the bipartisan agreement that Musk and Trump threw 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.

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By portraying Musk as an oligarch who was 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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