The House passed a bill Friday to avert a partial government shutdown, hours before a midnight federal funding deadline.
Lawmakers were scrambling to find a way forward after the original bill was vetoed by President-elect Trump and his allies on Wednesday, and a later Trump-approved bill died in the full House on Thursday. .
But President Trump has remained conspicuously silent about this latest measure, which many House Republicans see as a sign of tacit approval.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) expressed optimism after days of uncertainty, speaking to the full House on Friday as he left a closed House Republican meeting where leaders announced their plans. He told reporters that there will be a vote.
Daniel Penny selected by House Republicans as Congressional Gold Medal nominee
Johnson suggested a vote on avoiding a government shutdown would be held on Friday. (Getty Images/AP)
“We are not going to shut down the government, and we are going to meet our obligations to farmers in need, disaster victims across the country, military and essential services, and everyone who depends on the federal government for their paychecks. 'I'm going to go on vacation,' and I'm still going to get paid,” Johnson said.
on the other hand, national debt is over $36 trillion, and the deficit is over $1.8 trillion.
The next bill would extend current government funding levels through mid-March, a measure known as a continuing resolution (CR), multiple lawmakers told FOX News Digital. and $100 billion-plus in disaster relief for victims of the Milton storm. We also provide support to the agricultural industry.
Johnson's aim is to bypass the House of Commons' normal procedure and bring the bill to a vote directly in front of the full chamber, a maneuver known as “suspension of the rules.”
But in exchange for the fast track, the threshold for passage would be raised from a simple majority to two-thirds of the House, meaning Democratic support would be essential.
Mike Johnson wins Republican support to become Speaker of the House again
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told reporters he believed Johnson had reached an agreement with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. . Mr Massey, a long-time critic of Mr Johnson, said he would not vote in favor of the bill.
“Trump wanted to raise the debt ceiling, and now we have the exact same bill on the floor without raising the debt ceiling,” Massey said.
Another Republican argued that Johnson would not move forward without Trump's blessing.
President-elect Trump called on Republicans to reduce the original spending bill. (Oleg Nikin/Getty Images)
Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pennsylvania), when asked if Trump and Elon Musk support the deal, said, “If they don't, we won't do it.” Ta.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk led a conservative revolt against the original plan to avoid a partial shutdown, which was a bipartisan agreement that resulted from negotiations between the top Democrats and Republicans in both chambers.
The 1,547-page bill would extend current government funding levels through March 14. But Republican hardliners were furious at what they viewed as unrelated measures attached to the bill, including pay increases for members of Congress, health policy provisions and targeted legislation. In the revitalization of Washington, DC's RFK Stadium.
Trump-backed spending bill comes under fire as shutdown looms
The bill was scrapped after Trump and Musk threatened to remove any members of Congress who did not support the combination of CR and debt limit measures.
The debt ceiling would be suspended until January 2025 by prior bipartisan agreement, but President Trump had urged Republicans to do so now to avoid a messy, drawn-out battle early in his term.
The second round of funding agreements was much leaner, at 116 pages. The stadium bill and legislative pay increases were excluded, but measures to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore and provide funding for disaster relief funds were included. The debt ceiling has also been suspended until January 2027.
Representative Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) opposes Prime Minister Johnson's new CR plan (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
However, the House vote on the second bill was difficult, but it sparked an uproar when 38 Republicans opposed raising or suspending the debt ceiling, but all but two Democrats voted in favor of rejecting the bill.
Mr. Johnson swarmed those holdouts on Friday morning, along with Russell Vought, President Trump's nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The latest plan to be voted on does not involve the debt ceiling, but Johnson said in the closed session that the debt ceiling would be raised early next year as part of the party's major policy and spending overhaul plan. I promised.
In addition to the CR plan, House Republican leaders in a closed session on Friday raised the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion and then raised net spending by $2.5 trillion, multiple sources told Fox News Digital. announced plans to reduce the dollar amount.
However, it is not yet clear whether the bill would affect all 38 reservations. Many advocated a plan to vote on a “single-subject” bill, separating CR from disaster relief and agricultural aid.
But with a partial government shutdown just hours away, House leadership appeared to be running out of time to end it by the end of Friday.
