Republicans and Democrats coalesced around the GOP’s revamped legislation to avert a partial government shutdown on Friday, hours ahead of the government funding deadline.
Republicans opted to revive House Speaker Mike Johnson’s failed government funding extension after hours of back-and-forth discussions behind closed doors and intervention from President-elect Donald Trump.
The latest offering stripped away the two-year suspension of the federal government’s debt limit, instead punting those negotiations into early next year. Mr. Trump had previously demanded that the debt-ceiling extension be dealt with before he took office, but backed off because of a lack of support among fiscal conservatives.
But major points of the bill, including $100 billion for disaster aid, $10 billion for economic assistance to farmers and a one-year extension to the farm bill, remained.
Lawmakers passed the funding extension 366 to 34, momentarily easing concerns that a partial shutdown was inevitable. The bill now heads to the Democrat-led Senate, where it must pass by midnight to halt a fast-encroaching partial shutdown.
A good sign for the bill’s passage in the upper chamber came in the midst of the floor vote, when the White House announced that President Biden intended to back the legislation.
“President Biden supports moving this legislation forward and ensuring that the vital services the government provides for hardworking Americans — from issuing Social Security checks to processing benefits for veterans — can continue as well as to grant assistance for communities that were impacted by devastating hurricanes,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
Although the GOP found consensus in this latest approach to prevent the government from shuttering, every “no” vote against the bill came from Republicans, who contended that they could not support it because the disaster aid was not paid for.
“I cannot in good conscience vote for legislation that adds $110 billion to the deficit, which is why I offered House GOP Leadership numerous options to pay for this aid,” Rep. Andrew Clyde, Georgia Republican, said on X ahead of the vote. “Unfortunately, all of these offsets were rejected.”
After hours of negotiation behind closed doors on Friday, Republicans committed to a plan to raise the debt limit and cut spending early next year through the budget reconciliation process.
Though still in flux, the working plan surrounding the debt limit would involve a $1.5 trillion increase in the statutory borrowing limit, followed by $2.5 trillion in mandatory spending cuts.
The original funding plan from Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, was the product of bipartisan negotiations with House and Senate Democrats — a point that ultimately led to its demise earlier this week at the behest of Mr. Trump and his government efficiency advisor, Elon Musk.
That led to a scramble from Mr. Johnson and Republicans to find an alternative solution, and to meet Mr. Trump’s demand for a suspension, or outright termination, of the debt limit.
It also put into question whether Democrats would support the latest package, after spending the last few days pressing Mr. Johnson to bring back their bipartisan funding extension agreement, and lamenting Republicans for bending the knee to Mr. Musk, who spent the better part of Tuesday raging against the bill.
Democrats huddled minutes before the House was set to vote, awaiting for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, to lay out a plan.
Lawmakers leaving the Democratic caucus meeting said that both the White House and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer supported the new package, and that stripping out the debt-limit provision was a “big win.”
Rep. Jim Himes, Connecticut Democrat, said that the sense inside of the room was that “the smart thing to do is just to take the win.”
“[There’s] a lot of good stuff in this, keeps the government open,” Mr. Himes said. “Elon Musk’s lack of influence was demonstrated. Republican chaos was demonstrated. So it’s not the bill we would have wanted, but it’s a ‘yes’ for me anyway.”
