The federal funding bill clears Congress and targets President Biden, avoiding a shutdown – nationally

Facing a government shutdown deadline, the Senate rushed through the final passage early Saturday of a bipartisan plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster relief, undercutting President-elect Donald Trump’s demands to raise the debt ceiling in the new year.

House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted that Congress will “meet our responsibilities” and not allow the federal government to shut down before the Christmas holiday season. But the day’s outcome was uncertain after Trump doubled down on his insistence that debt relief be included in any deal — if not, he said in a morning post, the shutdown “let it begin now.”

The House approved Johnson’s new bill, 366-34. The Senate worked late into the night to pass it, 85-11, shortly after the deadline. At midnight, the White House said it had abandoned preparations to hang up the phone.

“This is a good result for the country,” Johnson said after the House vote, adding that he had spoken with Trump and the president-elect was “happy with the result.”

President Joe Biden, who has played little public role in the process throughout the tumultuous week, was expected to sign the measure into law on Saturday.

“There will be no government shutdown,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The end product was a third attempt from Johnson, the embattled House speaker, to accomplish one of the federal government’s most basic needs — to keep it open. And it has raised serious questions about whether Johnson will be able to keep his job, in the face of angry GOP colleagues, and work with Trump and fellow billionaire Elon Musk, who has called the legal games away.

Trump’s last-minute demand was almost impossible, and Johnson probably had no choice but to face his pressure to raise the debt ceiling. The speaker knew that there would not be enough support among the GOP majority to pass any funding package, as many Republican deficit hawks would prefer to destroy the federal government and would not allow more debt.

Instead, Republicans, who will have full control of the White House, House and Senate next year, have big plans for tax cuts and other priorities, indicating that they must rely on Democrats for the necessary votes to go through the normal process. of governance.

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“So is this a Republican bill or a Democrat bill?” mocked Musk on social media before the vote.

The heavily discounted 118-page package would fund the government at current levels until March 14 and add $100 billion in disaster relief and $10 billion in agricultural aid.

There is no longer Trump’s need to increase the debt, which GOP leaders have told lawmakers will be discussed as part of their tax and cuts bill in the new year. Republicans struck a so-called handshake deal to raise the debt ceiling during that time while also cutting $2.5 trillion in spending over 10 years.

It’s essentially the same deal that broke out on the eve of the epic crisis — opposed by most Democrats and some hard-line Republicans — minus Trump’s demand for a debt ceiling.

But it’s much smaller than the first bipartisan deal Johnson struck with Democratic and Republican leaders — a 1,500-page bill that Trump and Musk rejected, forcing him to start over. It was filled with a long list of other bills — including a pay raise widely derided by lawmakers — but also other measures with broad bipartisan support that are on the way to becoming law.

House Democrats were cool on the latest effort after Johnson backed away from a hard-fought bipartisan concession.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said it looks like Musk, the world’s richest man, is calling out Trump and Republicans.

“Who’s in charge?” he asked during the debate.

Still, House Democrats cast more votes than Republicans to pass the bill. About thirty-two conservative House Republicans voted against it.

“House Democrats have successfully stopped MAGA Republicans from shutting down the government, destroying the economy and hurting working Americans across the country,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

In the Senate, almost all of the opposition came from Republicans — except for independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said Musk’s meddling “isn’t democracy, that’s oligarchy.”

Trump, who has not yet been sworn into office, is showing the power but also the limits of his dealings with Congress, as he intervenes and organizes events from Mar-a-Lago alongside Musk, who heads the new Department of Government Operations. .

The incoming Trump administration is vowing to slash the federal budget and lay off thousands of workers and rely on Republicans for a bigger tax package. And Trump isn’t afraid of a shutdown of lawmakers, having caused the longest government shutdown in history during his first term in the White House.

“If there is going to be a government shutdown, let it start now,” Trump said early in the morning on social media.

Most important to the president-elect was his need to get the tough debt debate off the table before he returned to the White House. The federal debt limit expires on January 1, and Trump doesn’t want the first months of his administration to be spent on tough negotiations in Congress to increase the nation’s borrowing capacity. Now Johnson will be in a position to deliver.

“Congress must remove, or reach, perhaps, by 2029, the absurd Debt Ceiling,” Trump said – raising his demand for a five-year debt ceiling increase. “Without this, we should never make a deal.”

State workers had been told to prepare for a federal shutdown that would send millions of workers — and members of the military — on vacation without pay.

Biden had talks with Jeffries and Schumer, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Republicans rejected the deal. They did, and they need to fix this. “

As the day wore on, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell stepped in to remind his colleagues “how dangerous it is to shut down the government, and how foolish it is to bet your own side won’t be responsible for that.”

At one point, Johnson asked House Republicans at a lunch meeting for a show of hands as he tried to choose a way forward.

It wasn’t just a shutdown, but the speaker’s job was on the line. The speaker election is the first vote of the new Congress, which convenes on January 3, and some Trump allies have tapped Musk for the speakership.

Johnson said he spoke with Musk before Friday’s vote and they talked about the “extraordinary challenges of this job.”