Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.S., suggested the ball is still in House Republicans' court after a second proposal to extend government funding stalled in a floor vote. , said that they had to think about how to make it work. Get ahead of Friday night's deadline.
“It’s like we’re back to square one,” Thune told The Hill as he left the Capitol. “We'll see. We'll find out in the House what they want to do next, and they'll digest this last effort and see what Plan B is.”
“We have to find a way forward,” he continued. “We have just over 24 hours left until we close, so we need to close quickly, but we’re going to figure it out.”
The comments came as 38 House Republicans joined nearly all Democrats in voting to reject a proposal created by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) in collaboration with President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. It was announced immediately after.
The hastily added bill would extend government funding through mid-March, raise the debt ceiling for two years and include money for disaster relief and farmers' economic support.
Johnson introduced the bill Thursday afternoon after President Trump, Elon Musk and many conservatives opposed the more than 1,500-page bill, which included numerous concessions to join Democrats.
Democratic leaders are now calling on Johnson to backtrack on a bipartisan compromise to keep the lights on in the government.
“It's good that the bill died in the House,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York told reporters. “And now it's time to get back to bipartisan agreement.”
