Hours before government shutdown deadline, House Republicans regroup to craft new plan
Washington — House Republicans went back to the drawing board Friday morning to try and chart a path forward to avoid a government shutdown and approve new spending, meeting on Capitol Hill after Speaker Mike Johnson was bruised by a failed vote the night before.
On Thursday, the GOP majority tried and failed to fast-track a measure that would keep the government funded and also raise the debt ceiling, a demand issued at the 11th hour by President-elect Donald Trump. But 38 Republicans voted against the measure, and only two Democrats supported it. The final tally was 174 in favor to 235 against, with one member voting present.
Arriving at the Capitol on Friday morning, Johnson told reporters to "stay tuned — we've got a plan."
Johnson presented that plan to his fellow Republicans at a conference meeting, according to lawmakers who spoke to reporters. It would set up votes on three separate bills: a clean short-term extension of government funding, billions of dollars in disaster relief and billions more in aid to farmers.
However, the situation remained fluid as the afternoon unfolded. There was no immediate public reaction from Trump, who has pushed hard for a vote to abolish or suspend the debt ceiling before he takes office. Suspending or raising the debt ceiling would not happen under the plan that Johnson presented to members — instead, Republicans would commit to addressing the debt limit next year in a planned tax bill.
Government funding will technically lapse at midnight Friday night absent a funding extension. But most of the effects of a shutdown wouldn't begin to be felt until Monday morning, potentially giving lawmakers some breathing room to craft an agreement past the deadline.
Any bill to keep the government funded will still need approval from the Democratic-controlled Senate and President Biden. Democrats are still pushing Republicans to bring up the original deal they supported but haven't ruled out supporting a narrow funding extension. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said shortly before noon that the "lines of communication have been reopened" with Republicans but he had not yet seen a plan. He reiterated that debt limit discussions are "premature."
"Enough gimmicks — we've just got to get back to the agreement that we have. That's my position," Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat of Maryland, told reporters Friday.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president spoke Friday with both Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and placed responsibility squarely on Republicans.
"This is a mess that Speaker Johnson created, that is his mess to fix," she said. "There was a deal on the table."
Chaos on Capitol Hill
The House descended into chaos Wednesday when a GOP revolt spurred by Trump and Elon Musk sank the original deal that Johnson had spent weeks negotiating with Democrats.
Johnson then brought up the new version the next day. The legislation would have extended government funding for three months, suspended the debt limit until January 2027 and provided $110 billion in disaster aid. It also included health care policy extenders, funding for rebuilding Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge and a renewal of the farm bill for one year.
Those proposals were all in the original deal, but many billions of dollars that Democrats had demanded were cut out. Johnson defended the bill Thursday night before the vote, saying some bipartisan measures were still included.
"The only change in this legislation is that we are going to push the debt limit to Jan. 30 of 2027," Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said. The second version was considerably slimmer, at 116 pages compared to the 1,547 pages of the original continuing resolution. Trump immediately backed it, calling it a "SUCCESS" and "a very good deal."
But dozens of House Republicans and nearly all Democrats rejected it. Jeffries said the proposal was "laughable." After the failed vote, Schumer said that "now it's time to go back to the bipartisan agreement."
In a statement Thursday evening, Jean-Pierre said Mr. Biden "supports the bipartisan agreement to keep the government open, help communities recovering from disasters, and lower costs — not this giveaway for billionaires that Republicans are proposing at the 11th hour."
Trump and the debt ceiling
After Thursday's vote, Trump continued to insist the debt ceiling should be included in any stopgap government funding measure, posting on Truth Social that there should not be a deal unless Congress eliminates the debt ceiling — or extends it beyond his presidency to 2029.
"Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling. Without this, we should never make a deal. Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President," he wrote.
The debt ceiling, which limits how much the government can borrow to pay its bills, is suspended until the first quarter of next year, and Trump has said that he'd prefer to force Mr. Biden to approve raising the debt ceiling so he wouldn't have to.
Trump laid out his position on Thursday in a phone conversation with CBS News' Robert Costa.
"Number one, the debt ceiling should be thrown out entirely," Trump said to Costa. "Number two, a lot of the different things they thought they'd receive [in a recently proposed spending deal] are now going to be thrown out, 100%. And we'll see what happens. We'll see whether or not we have a closure during the Biden administration. But if it's going to take place, it's going to take place during Biden, not during Trump."
