House Passes Bill To Keep Government From Shutting Down, Omits Debt Limit Hike Trump Wanted
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives passed a bill early Friday night to keep the government operating into March, avoiding a potentially embarrassing shutdown but also denying President-elect Donald Trump a key priority: a hike in the government’s borrowing authority.
The vote was 366 to 34, far more than the two-thirds majority needed to pass the bill under a special procedure to clear it quickly. Many House Democrats supported the bill, ensuring its passage. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to also pass.
The new bill is similar to what was voted on Thursday, with provisions for keeping the government open into March 2025, natural disaster relief, financial aid for farmers and some of the health program extensions favored by Democrats.
But it lacks language to boost the debt ceiling, which Democrats had objected and which Trump had demanded. Early Friday morning, Trump was still insisting on a debt hike, which would remove one of the few obvious political hurdles to his desire to extend temporary tax cuts put in place in 2017.
“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling. Without this, we should never make a deal,” he posted on his social media site.
The bill is also a rebuke of sorts to Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO whose posts helped kill the original bill that had been carefully crafted by lawmakers behind the scenes.
“No bills should be passed Congress until Jan 20, when@realDonaldTrump takes office,” Musk posted, a prospect that would have resulted in a shutdown until then.
Musk even raised last-minute doubts about the bill that ultimately passed, asking whether it was a Democratic or Republican bill, not long before the final vote.
The bill that passed the House on Friday was the GOP’s third attempt this week to prevent a shutdown. The first bill was pulled when it was obvious Republican members were not happy and after Musk and Trump had been publicly critical of it.
The second attempt on Thursday was a very stripped-down version that also included the debt ceiling hike Trump asked for, a non-starter for Democrats as well as 38 House Republicans. The final bill was close to Thursday’s but excised the debt limit language.
House Speaker Mike Johson (R-La.) claimed the bill as a victory after the vote, despite more Democrats than Republicans, 196 to 170, voting in the bill’s favor.
“We are set up for a big and important new start in January. We can’t wait to get to that point,” Johnson told reporters after the vote.
He also said he had spoken to Trump and Musk and said he thought Trump was happy with the outcome.
Democrats took the preservation of the health care program extensions, including funding for community health centers, as well as denying Trump a debt limit hike as a win. Republicans will face the choice next year of voting for a debt limit hike on their own, trying to get unlikely bipartisan support for a debt hike or suspension of the limit, or seeing the government default on its $36 trillion-plus in debt. That’s a daunting political prospect.
“Trump really wanted that,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said of the debt ceiling hike.
It was unclear whether dropping that provision would be a problem in the Senate, though at least one GOP senator thought so.
“The president has been very vocal about what he wants, he wants a debt limit, he wants it done before he gets into office … and the first thing he’s asked us to do we are not able to deliver,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told HuffPost. “That’s a problem.”
While the government would technically shut down after 11:59 p.m. Friday if a funding bill were not passed, the effects of a shutdown would not be felt in most cases until Monday, the next business day. A prolonged shutdown would mean furloughs, missed paychecks for federal workers and members of the military, and interruptions to a variety of federal services, such as maintenance at national parks.
The win Johnson was claiming could also be Pyrrhic one. Many House Republicans were upset with the initial bill but also with how he managed things up until the final vote. He faces a vote Jan. 3 on whether he will remain as speaker for the 119th Congress.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said he planned to vote against Johnson in January. Asked why, he said, “Because we’re legislating by Braille here. I think this wasn’t handled well.”
At the beginning of the current Congress, it took Republicans 15 floor votes to select a speaker, then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). He was ousted from the post in less than a year, then left Congress. A repeat of that would delay what Trump and his advisers hope is a quick start on legislation potentially dealing with immigration, taxes and other issues.
Though they were left out of the funding bill, some items that Democrats wanted but that were dropped may come back up in 2025.
For example, the final bill left out bipartisan changes in how workers’ drug benefits are handled, reducing the influence of pharmacy benefit managers with an aim to make sure drug rebates are passed on to individuals and companies.
Another item abandoned was the extension of authority for the government to give replacement benefits for people who get food assistance from the federal SNAP program but whose electronic benefit cards have been skimmed by thieves and their aid stolen.
“It is deeply shameful that some lawmakers have decided just before the holidays that people who are victims of a crime, including children and seniors, should no longer have their stolen SNAP benefits restored,” said Ty Jones Cox, vice president for food assistance with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in a tweet Thursday on X.
“Crime victims will be forced to make impossible choices. Do they turn to already overburdened food banks? Leave rent or a utility bill unpaid? Skimp on medication? The House GOP bill would leave them with no good options,” he posted.
Schakowsky, a liberal representing Chicago’s north side, said the bill was “a beginning” for the fight Democrats will face next year, when they are in the minority in both chambers of Congress.
“That fight, I think, was really embodied in the bills that are not in this legislation.”
Igor Bobic contributed reporting.
