U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Los Angeles) and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) listen during a Hanukkah reception at the U.S. Capitol on December 17, 2024 in Washington, DC.
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WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders were running out of time late Friday night to avert a partial government shutdown after President-elect Donald Trump and his allies struck a compromise bill to fund the government through March.
The continuing resolution, unveiled late Tuesday, appeared early and appeared to require Democratic votes to pass in the narrowly divided House, after hardline conservatives balked at the bill’s price tag and several provisions, including a pay raise for members of Congress. Undecided.
But late on Wednesday, Trump formally opposed the bill, after billionaire and Republican megadonor Elon Musk spent the day opposing it, slowly overcoming most of the House Republican conference It is politically impossible to support this bill.
The public failure of the massively negotiated bill also leaves House Speaker Mike Johnson’s standing in the chamber in jeopardy. The Louisiana Republican insisted on including several major spending initiatives in the bill, in part to win the necessary Democratic support in the Senate that the bill needs to become law.
Rather than simply calling for lower prices, Trump surprised many Republicans on Wednesday by demanding that any bill to fund the government must raise the debt ceiling.
The debt ceiling has become a recurring and heated debate in Washington every few years, and it was one that Trump was keen to avoid at the start of his second term.
“Raising the debt ceiling is not a good thing, but we would rather do it under Biden’s watch,” Trump said in a statement Wednesday, announcing his opposition to Johnson’s continued resolution.
“If Democrats aren’t cooperating on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they’re going to do that in June while we’re in office? Let’s have this debate now. We should pass a streamlined spending bill , this bill won’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats what they want.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
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