The Senate passed a stopgap funding measure early Saturday morning, averting a government shutdown that would lead to the furloughs of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, ending a tumultuous week in Congress.
Senators passed a continuing resolution that would extend funding at current levels through March 14, provide more than $100 billion in disaster relief to areas devastated by hurricanes and other storms, and include economic assistance for farmers. (CR) was approved by a vote of 85-11.
The bill passed the House 366-34-1 early Friday and will head to President Biden's desk for signature ahead of a midnight deadline.
Before final passage, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York) said on the Senate floor, “Tonight, the Senate brings more good news for America: There will be no government shutdown right before Christmas.'' Ta. “This is a good bill. It will keep government functioning, help Americans affected by hurricanes and natural disasters, help farmers, and avoid harmful logging.”
He added: “After a chaotic few days in the House, it's good news that a bipartisan approach has finally won out. It's a good lesson for next year. Both sides must work together.”
The final bill came together quickly after days of uncertainty and even as many lawmakers feared it was tipping toward an inevitable shutdown.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) was forced to reiterate a number of proposals. The bipartisan, bicameral, 1,547-page agreement introduced on Tuesday collapsed after President-elect Trump announced he would not support the deal and called for any funding plan, including an end to the debt ceiling.
House Republicans spent the rest of the week trying to come up with something that would get approval from most of the chamber, Democrats and Mr. Trump.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was quick to attack Johnson, announcing that he would not vote for another two-year term as speaker.
After House conservatives and rank-and-file Republicans initially killed the deal, the Senate took no active role in negotiations, and it took several weeks for a deal to be finalized.
Lawmakers breathed a sigh of relief after it finally passed. But with a catastrophic government shutdown on the horizon, some Republicans are wondering what kind of chaos lies ahead next year, when Republicans control an even slimmer House majority and President Trump takes office. I have doubts.
Asked how helpful it would be for President Trump to voice his demands early in the process, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on appropriations, said, “It definitely would be.” . “Once he takes office, there will be a Cabinet and a Legislature, and I think that’s going to happen.”
Although the final bill contained no debt limit content, House Republicans agreed to raise the borrowing limit by $1.5 trillion in exchange for a net $2.5 trillion reduction in mandatory spending. That will be done during next year's budget reconciliation process.
Mr. Schumer, along with House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, urged Mr. Johnson to abide by the bipartisan bill they had all negotiated, even after Mr. Trump launched negotiations to raise the debt ceiling. He called out to him and pulled the line apart.
In all, the three-month stopgap bill included about $100 billion in aid to areas affected by natural disasters such as Hurricanes Helen and Milton. Senators in North Carolina and South Carolina had threatened to hold up bills that didn't include the funding.
Disaster relief includes nearly $29 billion in funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Relief Fund, whose coffers have been nearly empty in recent days.
CR also approved federal funding to help rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed in March.
The Small Business Administration's (SBA) disaster loan program, where businesses and homeowners rely on low-interest loans to recover from disasters, was also replenished by about $2 billion.
The bill includes a one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill after Congress again failed to pass a new five-year bill. Lawmakers also agreed to spend an additional $10 billion in economic aid for farmers, after some Republicans in both chambers threatened not to vote in favor of the bill without more aid. This was in response to the
At the same time, the roughly 120-page bill has been significantly scaled back from the initial bipartisan agreement struck earlier this week, and Trump ally Elon Musk also helped kill it.
Among the notable provisions ultimately removed from the final bill were the transfer of land around Robert F. Kennedy Stadium from the federal government to the District of Columbia and a multi-year freeze on cost-of-living adjustments. There were words to end it. For members.
Some Republicans also acknowledge that other key bipartisan elements of the previous agreement have been lost, particularly in the health care sector, such as proposed pharmaceutical benefit manager (PBM) industry reforms.
“It was mislabeled by so many people, including the raises and the J6 committee. It was misrepresented to the public, but we won a good victory there,” said moderate Rep. Don Bacon. (R-Nebraska) said Thursday. He also addressed the PBM's proposal, saying the previous pitch for year-round E15 ethanol sales would have been “huge.”
He also accused Musk of spreading misinformation about the package on social media. claim The bill “included a provision to build a $3 billion NFL stadium in Washington, D.C.”
“But we have to be honest, a lot of what he said wasn't true. We don't know if he did it on purpose. He might just be repeating what he was told. No,” Bacon said. But he added: “A lot of that wasn't true, he was fixated on 1500 pages, but the reality was he was worried about the content, not the length.” And 600 pages, that was PBM. ”
