Washington — House Speaker Mike Johnson canceled a last-minute measure in the spring to keep the government funded and avoid a shutdown as he faced a rebellion from a growing number of allies, including his fellow Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump — Objected. spend billions of dollars Which was added to the bill.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, confirmed that stopgap funding measure The issue released Tuesday is over and the way forward is unclear.
“There is no new deal at this time,” Scalise said.
Lawmakers face a Friday deadline to approve the new spending. The measure released Tuesday would extend funding through March 14, but also include disaster aid, health care policy extenders and pay raises for members of Congress, among other provisions. The disaster relief portion of the bill alone cost $110 billion.
one in statement On Wednesday, Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance criticized Johnson's approach and said Republicans should pass “a streamlined spending bill that doesn't give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.” He also called on House Republicans to raise the debt ceiling, which limits how much the government can borrow to pay its bills.
He said, “Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do this is by increasing the debt ceiling without Democrat gifts. There's also a temporary funding bill.” , “Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”
The debt ceiling has not been part of these negotiations, and Republicans generally oppose raising it. Trump's decision to include the issue in shutdown talks adds a new dimension to the legislative fight, with just two days left until funding ends.
“Raising the debt ceiling is not a good thing, but we would like to do it on Biden's watch,” Trump and Vance wrote. “If Democrats won't cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they will do so in June during our administration? Let's debate this now.”
At the US Capitol, Vance did not answer when asked if he and Trump supported the shutdown.
continuing resolution
When it was unveiled on Tuesday, the spending legislation immediately drew the ire of many members of the House Republican conference, much of which was aimed at Johnson. While the speaker pledged to avoid the massive, year-end spending bills that conservatives hate, the final product resembled a scaled-down version of what the right wing of the party has been protesting against for years .
But Republicans' slim majority in the House meant Johnson would need Democratic votes to pass the bill, a dynamic that gave the minority more leverage to extract concessions during negotiations. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries signaled Democrats' influence amid reports that Johnson could water down the bill, he wrote in an op-ed post on x: “You break the bipartisan agreement, you are responsible for the consequences that follow.”
“Republicans have now decided to unilaterally break the bipartisan agreement they made,” Jeffries, a New York Democrat, told reporters Wednesday night. “House Republicans will now be responsible for any harm caused to the American people in the event of a government shutdown or worse. A deal is a deal. It was bipartisan. There's nothing more to say.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also called on Republicans to “make their case.”
“Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan deal or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country,” he said in a statement.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, acknowledged that the bill was intended to be “pretty thin” before “some intrusive things” happened, citing the devastation caused by hurricanes earlier this year.
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Before the bill's text was released, Johnson dismissed Republicans' concerns that the continuing resolution was tantamount to an “omnibus” bill, a term used when Congress packages annual appropriations bills that cover multiple federal government issues. Agencies are funded in a larger law.
“It's not omnibus, okay?” Johnson said at his weekly news conference on Tuesday. “It's a little [continuing resolution] We had to add things into it that were beyond our control. These are not man-made disasters. “These are things that the federal government has a proper role to do.”
Johnson also vowed to give members 72 hours to read the bill before voting, but MPs said they were expecting to vote by Wednesday, giving them 24 hours to read the nearly 1,550-page text. Will get less than an hour. Trump's statement threw the path forward into doubt, raising speculation that Johnson might scrap the current version of the bill and bring in a narrower funding extension that also includes disaster relief.
Missouri Republican Representative Eric Burlison on Tuesday called the process “a complete dumpster fire.” He said he was “disappointed” with Johnson and called on him to “communicate better.” Other members, such as Representative Chip Roy of Texas, have relaxed me Bill “Cramnibus.” Florida Republican Representative Kat Cammack said the measure is “a Band-Aid laced with fentanyl.”
Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said, “There's a certain sandwich that's made of feces, and I would compare it to this.” He argued that linking disaster relief with the measure puts members in a difficult position. “It's just a sandwich. I don't know how else to put it that we're being forced into this situation.”
The fight could threaten Johnson's speech when the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3. Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie said Wednesday that he would not endorse Johnson in his election for speaker.
“I'm not voting for him,” Massey said. “It solidifies it.”
Massey said he has spoken to other members who have a similar stance.
Johnson also faced opposition outside the House. Elon Musk, co-head of the government efficiency division of Trump's advisory body, said in a post on X that any lawmaker “who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to vote for it in 2 years.” Musk posted dozens of times throughout the day calling on lawmakers to oppose the bill, which he called “criminal.”
speaker told fox news Earlier in the day, he had discussed the situation with Musk and DOGE's other co-chief Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday evening. Johnson said he stressed to them that passing a continuing resolution now would “cleanse the sentence” and allow the incoming GOP majority to “put their fingerprints on the spending” in March.
Musk and both Ramaswami Anyway, came out in strong opposition to the bill.
The stopgap measure will expire about two months into Trump's second term, setting off another budget fight as Republicans attempt to pass his top priorities during Trump's first 100 days. Although they will have control of both chambers of Congress, House Republicans will operate with a razor-thin majority until the seats vacated by members who joined the Trump administration are filled.
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