The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a Republican-led funding bill aimed at averting a government shutdown as federal agencies would run out of cash Friday night and cease operations later this week. .
The controversial legislation would have suspended the nation’s borrowing limit for President-elect Donald Trump’s first two years in office, and dozens of debt supporters from Republican ranks rebelled against his own leadership to sink the package.
It was a defeat for the Republican leader, who had thrown his full weight behind the plan along with tech billionaire Elon Musk – his incoming “efficiency czar”.
It was supposed to fix a massive bipartisan package that both men scuttled on Wednesday amid complaints from conservatives about extras in the package that drove up its total cost.
The reworked version was considered under the fast-track method, which required two-thirds support, but Democrats were clear that it would deprive Republicans of the votes needed for insurgents in their ranks and that it would also require winning an outright majority. I failed.
Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said before the vote, “…the proposal is not serious, it’s ridiculous. Extreme MAGA Republicans are pushing us for a government shutdown.” The White House described it as a “gift to billionaires.”
Republicans will likely try again with a more condensed version, though party leadership offered no clear path forward, telling reporters they would have to meet to discuss Plan C.
A shutdown now looks almost certain — which means closing all kinds of federal agencies and potentially sending nearly a million workers home without pay by Christmas.
Funding the government is always difficult and this time MPs are under pressure as they failed to agree on a full-year budget for 2025 despite months of negotiations.
Party leaders had landed on a stopgap bill – known as a “continuing resolution” (CR) – to keep operations running until mid-March.
Musk, a major Trump donor and ally, spent much of Wednesday bombarding his 208 million followers on Instagram with posts slamming the deal and raising complaints from House debt hawks who balked at the many expensive add-ons included in the package. But were adamant.
Twelve hours later, Trump, who appeared to be playing catch-up, began threatening the reelection prospects of Republicans thinking about supporting the package and raising the bill or even raising the nation’s debt ceiling. Suddenly started demanding to end it.
– Speaker on fire –
Government operations will begin shutting down at midnight Saturday, with an estimated 875,000 workers at risk of being furloughed without pay and essential workers working without pay checks during the holidays.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing criticism from all sides for his handling of the negotiations and his position is likely to be in jeopardy if he runs for re-election in January.
The Louisiana congressman appears to have misjudged his own members’ tolerance for the rising costs of Native CR, and has allowed himself to be blindsided by Musk and Trump.
Democrats, who control the Senate, have little political incentive to help Republicans and Jeffries has stressed that he will only vote for a bipartisan package, meaning Trump’s party will have to face any further consequences. Even with this effort, we will have to move forward alone.
This is something that such a fragmented, divided party – which can only afford to lose a handful of members in any House vote – has not succeeded in passing any major legislation in this Congress.
Expressing disappointment at the level of spending, Trump’s main objection to the original CR was that Congress was leaving him to handle the debt-ceiling increase – certainly a contentious, time-consuming fight – before including it in the text. instead of.
President Joe Biden spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the veteran Democrat “supports a bipartisan compromise to keep the government open… This is not the gift to billionaires that Republicans are proposing at the 11th hour.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
