Congress narrowly averts authorities shutdown — and rejects Trump’s debt ceiling instructions | EUROtoday

The House of Representatives authorized a authorities spending invoice with only some hours left to spare earlier than an important midnight deadline that will have shut down the federal government earlier than Christmas. The Senate adopted swimsuit about 40 minutes previous midnight.

The House voted 366-34. One member voted current. All 34 “no” votes have been Republicans.

The Senate, managed by Democrats, voted 85-11.

The vote despatched the measure to president Joe Biden, who was anticipated to signal it into legislation.

A invoice to fund the federal government by means of mid-March marked a 3rd try inside two days to avert a shutdown, after Donald Trump and Elon Musk commanded Congress to ditch the unique bipartisan framework and left congressional Democrats and even some Republicans exhausted with the rising political affect of the world’s wealthiest particular person.

The funding battle glimpsed how Democrats are approaching the incoming Trump-Musk administration and the way they may navigate Trump’s agenda with a particularly slim Republican majority.

Here, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries pressured Republicans to combat amongst themselves. Republicans have been overtly calling for a shutdown, then whipped to simply accept a brand new deal beneath House Speaker Mike Johnson, whereas leaving out Trump’s central demand to abolish the debt ceiling.

Johnson advised reporters Friday he was “in constant contact” with Trump and spoke with Musk an hour earlier than the vote.

“He knew exactly what we were doing and why, and this is a good outcome for the country,” he mentioned of his conversations with Trump.

A authorities shutdown would have stalled paychecks for US army service members, pressured federal businesses to shut, furloughed staff simply earlier than Christmas, and threatened essential providers and advantages.

The standoff reveals simply how a lot Republicans within the House and the Senate, the place they may take the bulk subsequent 12 months, should cater to Trump and Musk’s will. But there have been few indicators that Johnson may face a reputable challenger for the gavel in a couple of weeks.

“Speaker Johnson’s shown tremendous leadership this week through very difficult times,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who may problem Johnson, advised The Independent. “Look, both through a narrow majority that we have, but also just the difficulties of keeping government running when you have a lot of different factions on our side and you still have to deal with a Democrat Senate, a Democrat White House.”

The president-elect had additionally hoped to incorporate an settlement that will scrap the debt ceiling in an effort to grease the wheels for main objects on his agenda, together with large tax cuts that will explode the deficit and a mass deportation operation that might value billions of {dollars} and deal an unlimited blow to the financial system.

“We have successfully stopped extreme MAGA Republicans from shutting down the government, crashing the economy, and hurting working-class Americans,” Jeffries advised reporters after Friday’s vote.

House Democrats stopped the “billionaire boy’s club,” mentioned Jeffries, calling the stop-gap measure a “victory for the American people.”

A comparatively slim 118-page invoice covers a bulk of presidency funding, catastrophe reduction and funds to farmers — however the invoice eliminated measures supporting pediatric most cancers analysis, funding for group well being facilities, and prescription drug reform, amongst different measures.

The invoice additionally removes restrictions on investments in China. Democratic congresswoman Rose DeLauro — the rating Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee — warned congressional management that eradicating the supply calls into query Musk’s “extensive investments” in China whereas he’s working intently with the incoming administration.

Musk spent Friday making enjoyable of her look to his tens of millions of followers on X, evaluating her to a “skeksis” from The Dark Crystal franchise, and provoking a flood of harassing messages and AI-generated memes concerning the 81-year-old congresswoman.

“At the behest of the world’s richest man who no one voted for, the Congress has been thrown into pandemonium,” DeLauro mentioned in remarks on the House flooring. “It leads you to the question of, who is in charge? I thought that there was a Republican majority in this body. Not a ‘President Musk’ majority.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned a authorities shutdown heading into the vacation week “would mean service members and air traffic controllers go to work without pay, essential government services for hardworking Americans would be paused, and economic disruption would occur.”

“Following an order by President-elect Trump … Republicans walked away from a bipartisan deal and threatened to shut down the government at the 11th hour in order to pave the way to provide tax breaks for billionaires. This revised legislation does not do that,” she mentioned.

Republican congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna of Florida advised reporters she supported the newest measure “to bring home funding to my district for hurricane relief victims.”

“It was still better than the 1,500-page monstrosity that was initially thrusted onto the entire chamber,” she mentioned.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis advised The Independent that “whoever advised” Trump {that a} debt ceiling deal would even be doable “needs to better understand how this place works.” Republicans had “zero leverage” to get that provision handed within the Democratically-controlled Senate, he mentioned.

“And I wish that President Trump had been advised … that it was never in the cards,” he mentioned.

Democratic congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was the only real Democrat to vote “present” throughout Friday’s vote.

“I think that we are walking into unprecedented times, so I don’t know what’s to come,” she advised reporters. “I never anticipated that this will go down this way, and so we’ll just see, but hopefully we will continue to stand following tonight.”

Eric Garcia reported from Washington, D.C.