The Senate passes a bill to stop the shutdown, sending it to President Biden’s desk
Senators voted to pass a new version of the stopgap bill early Saturday morning after a midnight deadline for a partial government shutdown passed.
The Senate has advanced a third version of the short-term spending bill, and it is now headed to the desk of President Biden, who has already signed it into law.
The original deal on the short-term spending bill was released earlier in the week, which is 1,547 pages and includes a number of policy provisions and disaster relief.
But soon after its release, billionaire Elon Musk and other conservative critics publicly blasted the measure, which was eventually condemned by President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.
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Congress passed a bill to shorten the shutdown by only hours. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Republicans need to be smart and tough. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, CALL THEIR BLUFF. It’s Schumer and Biden who are holding back aid to our farmers and disaster relief,” Trump and Vance. said a lengthy statement opposing the bill Wednesday afternoon.
The first spending measure would have extended federal funding levels for the 2024 fiscal year through March 14 and provided more than $100 billion in disaster relief to those affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton in the US Southeast earlier this year. There was also a provision of 10 billion rands to help farmers economically in this bill.
Meanwhile, from Thursday, i US national debt it was at $36,167,604,149,955.61 and was continuing to rise rapidly.
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Elon Musk was against the first iteration of the bill. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The size of the bill, along with several of its other provisions, including a cost-of-living increase for lawmakers, has prompted public backlash from Musk and others.
“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” wrote to X.
After going back to the drawing board, House Republicans emerged Thursday with a new proposal. The revised measure would have extended current funding levels for three months and included a two-year suspension of the debt ceiling, at Trump’s request.
Additionally, it has provided economic relief to farmers and disaster relief of approximately $110 billion.
But the bill failed on the House floor Thursday night as Democrats rallied against it and a majority of Republicans voted against it again.
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Johnson was left with a new suspension bill after Musk’s opposition. (Photos by Jean Catuffe/GC/Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“Old bill: $110BB in deficit spending (unpaid), $0 increase in national credit card. New bill: $110BB in cuts (unpaid), $4 TRILLION+ debt increase with $0 in structural cuts. Time to read bill: hours -1.5 I will vote no,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote in X before the vote.
Roy was one of 38 House Republicans who opposed the stopgap bill.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, left, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Reuters)
On Friday morning, there appeared to be no agreement between Democrats and Republicans in Congress to work on a new bill. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., have said the government will shut down at midnight if Republicans don’t go back on the original suspension bill.
“I’m ready to stay here until Christmas because we’re not going to let Elon Musk run the government,” Murray said in a statement.
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The Democrats did not get their wish, which was to go back to the original bill. (Reuters)
Schumer said in a statement to the Senate that the first bill will pass the House if Speaker Mike Johnson brings it to the floor for a vote.
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The third measure, which eventually passed the House and Senate, was similar to the one that failed the day before. The bill included economic relief for farmers and disaster relief for those affected by recent hurricanes. However, the final stopgap bill did not include the suspension of the debt ceiling, which Trump himself had requested.
The House passed the short-term spending bill with 366 yes votes, exceeding the required two-thirds majority.
