Dec. 19 (UPI) — A government shutdown looms Friday as Republican congressional leaders on Thursday evening failed to pass a revised stopgap funding bill favored and promoted by President-elect Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk.
Almost all Democrats opposed the revamped measure in which the GOP earlier had inserted a two-year suspension of the debt limit to appease Trump.
Before the vote, the House Democratic caucus could be heard loudly chanting “hell no” while behind closed doors, The Hill reported.
Late in the evening after the measure failed to pass, House Speaker Mike Johnson blamed Democrats and said Republicans would propose an alternative.
“We will re-group and we will come up with another solution. So stay tuned,” Johnson told reporters, according to CNN.
The House had initiated a vote on the proposed funding measure that Republicans dubbed the “American Relief Act” on Thursday night. They had just hours to go before a federal government shutdown would occur after midnight Friday.
Before the measure’s failure, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden opposed it.
“President Biden supports the bipartisan agreement to keep government open, help communities recovering from disasters and lower costs, not this giveaway for billionaires that Republicans are proposing at the 11th hour,” Jean-Pierre told ABC News.
While Jean-Pierre said Biden opposes the new spending bill, the president has stayed silent on the matter. Several House Democratic members said Biden hasn’t spoken with them regarding the matter, Politico reported.
Earlier in the day, Reps. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., and Tom Cole, R-Okla., told media Thursday afternoon the GOP had agreed to a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government until a more permanent measure can be enacted.
Cole chairs the House Appropriations Committee, of which Bice is a member.
President-elect Donald Trump earlier heralded the new agreement as a “success.”
“Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good deal for the American people,” Trump said Thursday afternoon in a post on Truth Social before the vote failure.
“The newly agreed to American Relief Act of 2024 will keep the government open, fund our great farmers and others, and provide relief for those severely impacted by the devastating hurricanes,” he added.
Trump said the new funding proposal contains a “very important piece” that is “vital to the America-first agenda.” He said the date of the “very unnecessary debt ceiling” would be moved to Jan. 30, 2027.
“Now we can Make America Great Again, very quickly, which is what the people gave us a mandate to accomplish,” Trump said. “All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our country, and vote ‘yes’ for this bill, tonight!”
But the House vote Thursday evening was 174-235, with one Democrat voting present. It fell far short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass under a fast-track process, according to NBC News.
Support for a prior bipartisan measure that included more than $100 billion in disaster relief funding and financial support for farmers and ranchers fell apart soon after the 1,547-page House resolution was announced Tuesday night.
Future Department of Government Efficiency co-Chairman Elon Musk on Wednesday rallied opposition to the 1,547-page bipartisan spending measure that would have funded the federal government into March.
Musk urged House Republicans to “kill the bill” in more than 100 posts on X, which Trump weighed in on afterward, USA Today reported.
“If Republicans try to pass a clean continuing resolution without all of the Democrat ‘bells and whistles’ that will be so destructive to our country, all it will do … is bring the mess of the debt limit into the Trump administration, rather than allowing it to take place in the Biden administration,” Trump said Wednesday in a post on Truth Social.
“Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be primaried,” Trump added. “Everything should be done, and fully negotiated, prior to my taking office on January 20th, 2025.”
The “bells and whistles” Trump referenced include a raise for members of Congress and another year of funding for the controversial Global Engagement Center, which is tasked with quelling “disinformation.”
Musk’s apparent leadership in opposing the proposed bipartisan spending measure caused many Democrats and some Republicans to mockingly refer to him as “president,” Newsweek reported.
The opposition to the bipartisan funding resolution drew a sharp rebuke for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
“We reached a bipartisan agreement that will help farmers, families, the future of working-class Americans, children, seniors, veterans and the men and women in uniform all across the nation and the world,”Jeffries told media Thursday.
“That bipartisan agreement has now been detonated because House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt the very working-class Americans that many of them pretend to want to help.”
While Jeffries blames the GOP for tanking the proposed short-term funding resolution, at least one member of the House Democrat Caucus promised to vote against it because the resolution included a significant pay raise and expansion of benefits for members of Congress.
“This legislation, released last night, was introduced without any debate and without allowing any amendments,” Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., said Wednesday in a press release.
“Members of Congress currently earn $174,000 annually — more than 90% of Americans,” Ryan said. “If enacted, this continuing resolution would allow for a 2025 adjustment of 3.8%, resulting in a member salary increase of $6,600.”
Ryan elaborated further in a post on X late Wednesday afternoon.
“My constituents are getting crushed by high costs; we should all be focused on lowering those costs. Period,” Ryan said. “I’m a hard NO until we put the American people over politicians.”
The funding controversy has endangered Johnson’s leadership position in the House when a new Congress is seated in January.
While Johnson, R-La., works to resolve the funding impasse, at least one House member expressed the desire to vote on an alternative funding resolution.
“I don’t know where Speaker Johnson is going to get his votes,” Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., told Roll Call, “but I’m certainly not going to join him in another disaster like the one he is presenting because he simply can’t get his caucus in order.”
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