Topline The House approved a new funding bill Friday which President Joe Biden endorsed just hours before a government shutdown was set to go into effect, an outcome President-elect Donald Trump suggested he was fine with so long as it happens on Biden’s watch.
Important Information
- The bill passed the House on a vote of 366-34, with all the “nay” votes coming from Republicans and no Democrats voting against it.
- The bill will head to the Senate for a vote.
- The White House said that President Joe Biden supports the package, though it “does not include everything we sought.”.
- The new package, sponsored by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will temporarily finance the federal government and provide disaster help, the Associated Press reported. The plan does not include the debt limit increase that Trump demanded this week.
- He stated after the session, however that Johnson flipped because, “he spoke to Hakeem Jeffries and realized he could get Democrat votes to pass all the legislation as one bill.” The House Republicans were sticking originally with an alternative, which was set up for separate passage and an individual vote of a separate measure to keep government funds afloat and thus avoid shutdown.
- President-elect Donald Trump indicated that he would be alright with a government shutdown when he posted on his Truth Social platform on Friday: “If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under ‘TRUMP.'” Biden is responsible for solving this issue, but Republicans will assist if they can!
- With 38 Republicans voting no with Democrats, the House rejected the previous spending bill, introduced Thursday, by a vote of 235-174.
- Trump appealed to both Republicans and Democrats to support the package, which was intended to postpone the debt ceiling for two years and keep funding the government till March 14.
- Earlier this week, Trump and his billionaire buddy Elon Musk attacked a financing bill supported by Johnson that was never put to a vote. The bill, said Trump, would “give sweetheart provisions for government censors” and provide Congress with a pay raise while “Americans are struggling.”
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Principal Critics
According to the Times, Democrats said they were “unified” in their opposition to the plan that day after emerging from a closed-door meeting on Thursday. The “Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said, calling it “laughable.” Musk fired back, saying he didn’t write the bill and that Democrats “deserve to lose bigtime in the midterms” if they reject it and a government shutdown ensues.
When could the government close?
The government will shut down partially on Friday night if a funding measure was not passed by midnight. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees may be placed on furlough, Medicare applications might stop, and there would be fewer air traffic controllers and TSA agents available in case of a shutdown, which could cause travel delays over the holidays. Border security, maintenance of the power system, and in-hospital medical treatment are expected to remain essential services as they were during previous government shutdowns.
Important Background:
Among his major complaints against earlier spending proposals was the lack of a debt ceiling, which wasn’t included in the initial bill put up on Tuesday. The debt ceiling would prevent the United States from going into default on its debt. The president-elect has sought to end or entirely do away with the debt ceiling. The Wall Street Journal reports that many fiscally conservative Republicans have turned down the extension of the debt ceiling, even if Trump
Musk has recently threatened to run primary challenges against Republicans who opposed changes in the debt ceiling in next month’s election. On Wednesday, in a series of posts on X, the former Twitter, one of the most vocal supporters of former President Donald Trump, he repeatedly attacked the previous funding measure, calling it “should not pass” and saying “one of the worst bills ever written.”
Tangent
Trump has not mentioned the failure of the bill passed on Thursday, but in a post on Truth Social, he reinforced his criticism of the debt ceiling by saying, “Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling.” “Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President,” the president-elect said, adding that no agreement should be reached without this requirement.
Additional Reading
Trump urges Republicans to “get smart and tough” and claims he is against the Johnson government funding bill (Forbes).
Congress should not pass a bill to prevent government shutdown, according to Musk (Forbes).
