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The US Congress has just 24 hours to find an agreement to keep the government open after the House of Representatives rejected a funding bill on Thursday evening despite the support of Donald Trump, who defeated an initial version of the bill a day ago had.
The vote of 174 to 235 marks the start of a House race republican to pass the new bill that would extend government spending through March 14, send billions of dollars to communities devastated by natural disasters and suspend the debt limit for two years – a crucial priority for the president-elect.
When Speaker Mike Johnson introduced the latest version of the bill earlier Thursday, Trump urged Republicans and Democrats to vote for it. “Success in Washington!” he posted on his Truth Social platform
However, Democrats immediately rejected the proposal.
“The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters before the vote, referring to Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk. “It’s ridiculous. Extreme MAGA Republicans are pushing us toward a government shutdown.”
The bill fell far short of the required two-thirds majority of House Democrats, a sign of the steep challenge ahead for Johnson and Republican leaders. A significant number of 38 Republicans voted against the measure.
The House and Senate must work quickly to pass the bill so it can be sent to President Joe Biden for his signature before Friday night’s deadline. After that, the government will begin the shutdown.
Musk put pressure on Johnson and the Republicans for the first time on Wednesday by speaking on his platform
When Trump then spoke out against the bill, he enraged Republicans in the House of Representatives, particularly because it did not also raise the government’s debt ceiling.
“At the behest of the richest man in the world, for whom no one voted, the United States Congress has fallen into turmoil,” Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Thursday, referring to Musk.
The legislative crisis has called Johnson’s leadership into question, with far-right members such as Marjorie Taylor Greene considered that Musk could replace him as spokesman.
The joke highlighted Johnson’s vulnerability. Asked by NBC News Thursday morning whether he still had confidence in the speaker, Trump said, “We’ll see.”
The first three-month stopgap bill was negotiated between Republican and Democratic congressional leaders. Maintaining current spending levels through March 14 and spending billions of dollars on farmers and disaster relief could have prevented a government shutdown. Until then, Republicans will control both Congress and the White House.
It also contained unrelated provisions, including a pay raise for members of Congress, limits on technology investments in China and an easier way for the American football team Washington Commanders to move their stadium from Maryland to Washington, DC.
However, the original bill did not affect the debt limit, which was expected to expire in the first months of Trump’s second term. Trump called it a “Democrat trap” and threatened Republican members that if they voted for a short-term spending measure without raising the debt ceiling, he would field primary challengers against them in the next election.
“Until the debt ceiling is reached, nothing will be approved,” Trump said ABC News. “If we don’t get it done, we’re going to have a shutdown, but it’s going to be a Biden shutdown because shutdowns only hurt the person who is president.”
In a sign of the targeted attacks Trump and Musk have promised against Republicans who don’t obey their policies, Trump on Thursday criticized conservative Rep. Chip Roy in the House of Representatives, who has consistently sought to cut spending.
“Chip Roy is just another ambitious guy with no talent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I hope there are some talented challengers in the Great State of Texas preparing to chase Chip in the primary. He won’t stand a chance!”
Roy responded to “New Bill: $110 Billion in Deficit Spending (Unpaid), Over $4 Trillion Debt Ceiling Increase and $0 in Structural Reforms for Cuts.”
The debt ceiling has been a perennial problem for lawmakers, who suspended the borrowing cap until Jan. 1 in an agreement reached last year. To borrow beyond that limit, the Treasury Department can take so-called “extraordinary measures” to cover new spending without exceeding the cap.
This can buy the government time before it has to worry about a possible default – a catastrophic outcome for the world’s largest economy and most important financial system.
