WASHINGTON — Congress finally passed a stopgap bill early Saturday that will keep the government open for a few more months, after a raucous 48 hours that served as a preview of what President-elect Donald Trump’s second term might look like.
The short-term spending package, the third version of a bill released this week, gives lawmakers until mid-March to negotiate a deal on the dozens of year-round government funding measures and provide about $100 billion in natural disaster relief.
Although technically it wasn’t passed by the Senate until after the midnight shutdown deadline, White House deputy press secretary Emilie Simons said said on X that the agencies would continue their normal operations.
The House of Representatives passed the bill on Friday evening after a 366-34 votes with one Democrat voting “present.” The Senate voted 85-11 Saturday shortly after midnight. President Joe Biden signed the bill Saturday morning.
The bill contained no language about raising or suspending the debt ceiling and rejected a demand from Trump to address it. That’s what Congress and Trump will have to contend with next year when they control the House, Senate and White House.
The 118-page bill will extend the programs in the five-year farm bill through September, giving the House and Senate more time to negotiate a deal even though they are already more than a year behind schedule.
The package would not deprive members of Congress of their first cost-of-living adjustment since January 2009 and would escalate lawmakers’ salaries from $174,000 to a maximum of $180,600 next year.
It does not include a provision discussed earlier this week that would have allowed E15-blend gasoline to be sold nationwide year-round, a win for corn growers and biofuels.
The White House announced during the House vote that Biden supports the bill.
“While it doesn’t include everything we sought, it does include the President’s requested disaster relief for communities recovering from the storm, eliminates the fast track to a tax cut for billionaires, and would ensure the government continues to operate at full capacity capacity can work.”, wrote press spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre. “President Biden supports advancing this legislation and ensuring that the vital services the government provides to hardworking Americans — from issuing Social Security checks to processing veterans benefits — as well as providing assistance to communities, can continue , which were affected by devastating hurricanes.”
Appropriators disagree
House Speaker Tom Cole, R-Okla., urged support for the bill during floor debate, saying it would prevent a partial government shutdown, provide disaster relief and provide economic aid to farmers.
“Governing through sustained resolve is never ideal, but Congress has a responsibility to keep government open and functioning for the American people,” Cole said. “The alternative, a government shutdown, would be devastating to our national defense and to our voters and would be a grave mistake.”
Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, spoke against the bill and criticized GOP negotiators for deviating from the original, bipartisan version released Tuesday.
She rejected billionaire Elon Musk, a close Trump ally who appeared to be calling the shots as if he were an elected lawmaker, although she ultimately voted for passage.
“The United States Congress is in turmoil,” DeLauro said. “That leads you to the question, who’s in charge?”
Objections from Trump and Musk
Democrats and Republicans achieved an agreement earlier this week to fund the government, provide disaster relief, expand the agriculture and nutrition programs in the Farm Bill, expand various health programs, and complete dozens of other items. But Trump intervened and blocked House Republican leaders from putting this bill forward for an up or down vote.
Trump and Musk did not support some of the irrelevant provisions in the original bill and Trump began urging lawmakers to address the debt limit now, rather than during his second term.
Republicans in the House of Representatives tried to pass their first Republican-only stopgap bill on Thursday evening, but failed after a vote of 174-235, with 38 GOP lawmakers voting against the bill. That bill called for a two-year suspension of the debt ceiling, but was removed from the version passed Friday.
Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said Friday before the vote that Republicans were united in their plan.
“We have a unified Republican Conference. “There is unanimous agreement in the room that we need to move forward,” Johnson said after a 90-minute closed session. “I expect us to move forward. We will not see a government shutdown. And we will fulfill our commitments to our farmers, to disaster victims across the country, and to ensuring that the military and essential services, as well as everyone whose wages depend on the federal government, are paid through the holidays.”
A total of 34 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against the bill. None of the Democrats in the House of Representatives voted against the passage.
No shutdown for now
Had the House and Senate not agreed on some sort of stopgap bill before Friday’s midnight deadline, it would have resulted in a funding shortfall that likely would have led to a partial government shutdown just as the holidays began.
During a shutdown, crucial government functions that include the protection of life and property continue, even though no federal employee would have received their paychecks by the end of the shutdown. This loss of income would have extended to US troops.
“If there is going to be a government shutdown, let it start now, under the Biden administration, not after January 20, under “TRUMP,” the president-elect posted on social media Friday morning. “This is a Biden problem that needs to be solved, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!”
In a separate post published shortly after 1 a.m. Eastern Time, Trump reiterated his insistence that any short-term spending bill suspend the debt limit for another four years or eliminate the borrowing limit entirely.
“Congress must eliminate the ridiculous debt ceiling, or perhaps extend it through 2029,” Trump wrote. “Without this we should never make a deal. Remember: the pressure is on whoever is president.”
Last updated on December 21, 2024, 11:30 am
