The U.S. House of Representatives passed a funding bill Friday night, hours before the U.S. government shutdown, and a bill that would drop President Donald Trump's demand to raise the debt ceiling.
The bill, which passed 366-34, authorizes three months of government funding and will be sent to the Senate, where it is expected to pass.
The vote came after the president-elect and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk, scrapped a prior bipartisan agreement at the last minute, sparking divisions within the Republican Party.
The bill, now before the Senate, would temporarily fund federal operations at current levels, adding $100 billion in disaster relief and $10 billion in aid to farmers.
The year-end breakdown within the Republican Party foreshadowed the turmoil expected when President Trump returns to the White House on January 20th. A government shutdown could force thousands of U.S. government workers to be furloughed and disrupt holiday travel. The last federal shutdown occurred in December 2018, during the Trump administration's first term.
The original bipartisan bill, negotiated by House Republicans and Democrats, was attacked on Wednesday by Musk, the world's richest man, who spent more than $250 million to elect Trump. musk warned Lawmakers who supported “exorbitant” spending bills “deserve to be voted out within two years!”
In response, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson introduced a second version of the bill, a simplified budget proposal that includes President Trump's new demand for an end to the debt ceiling. Trump had calculated that suspending the national debt ceiling while Biden was still in office would avoid an uphill battle in his first months in the White House.
Democrats have accused the new bill of being a cover for tax cuts that benefit wealthy supporters like Mr. Musk and creating trillions of dollars in additional debt for the United States. Several Republican lawmakers, enraged by the proposal to remove government borrowing limits, also pushed back.
The bill was defeated 174-235, a humiliating setback for President Trump.
This week's political drama showed that Trump's grip on the Republican Party is far from ironclad. The president-elect had been fiercely pushing for the bill's passage, including threatening to support the primary opposition Republican candidate who opposed the bill.
Earlier Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre launched a blistering attack on Republicans over their handling of the budget crisis. “Republicans have messed up this deal, and they did, and they need to fix this,” she told reporters. “[Republicans need] Shut down the government, quit politics, and…they follow orders from their billionaire friends and we see it at the expense of hard-working Americans. ”
Although Jean-Pierre did not name specific individuals, her comments appear to refer to Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Democrats this week mocked the tech billionaire's influence, citing “President Musk's” interference. In a speech Friday, Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, denounced the interference of “the richest man in the world, who no one voted for,” and blamed Musk for “congress being thrown into chaos.” He said that.
Musk repeatedly spread misinformation about the bipartisan proposal he helped block The Associated Press Found. He argued that the plan would give lawmakers a 40% increase, when the maximum possible increase under the proposal was actually 3.8%. Musk also shared a false post claiming the proposal would give $3 billion for a potential new NFL stadium in Washington, D.C. The bill included a provision that would transfer the Washington Commanders Stadium land from the U.S. government to the District of Columbia, but specified that no associated federal funding would be provided.
playing cards He reiterated his calls for a suspension or even elimination of federal borrowing limits early Friday, insisting that any shutdown should occur under Joe Biden's watch, not his incoming administration.
Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, said Friday night that he is “confident” the final bill will pass the Senate. “Although this bill does not include everything Democrats fought for, there are big wins for American families in this bill… emergency aid, debt relief for communities hit by natural disasters, “It will keep the government open without a cap and without severe cuts,” he said. said in a statement.
On Thursday, several members of the pro-Trump conservative Freedom Caucus were among the 38 Republicans who voted against President Trump's plan to raise the debt ceiling. The group includes prominent conservatives like Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, Chip Roy and Scott Perry, who have historically been strong allies of Trump. However, there is a line in the sand when it comes to eliminating restrictions on government borrowing.
“This was not an easy vote for constitutional conservatives,” Republican Rep. Kat Cammack, who voted against the bill, told reporters.
Associated Press contributed report
