- Congress votes to keep government funded
- New funding deadline: March 14
- Congress rejects Trump’s debt ceiling plan
- 38 House Republicans oppose Trump plan
On Friday, with just minutes to spare, the Congress gave final approval to legislation to keep the government open and avoid a government shutdown, as Americans were preparing to celebrate the holidays. However, danger signs emerged for the next Congressional showdown when 38 Republicans joined all the Democrats in opposing the Trump endorsed effort to fund the government and raise the national debt ceiling.
Since all spending bills must originate in the House under Speaker Mike Johnson, the bipartisan Congressional leadership worked on a large end of year bill that came in at over 1,500 pages long. As the House prepared for a vote on the bill designed to fund the government and other popular programs, first, Elon Musk and then the President-elect Trump came out against the bill. The leadership had to abandon the effort and seek legislation that the incoming President could accept. In this atmosphere, President Trump said that he could support a slimmed down bill that extended the existing CR until March, provide money for disaster relief, renew the Farm Bill, and provide emergency farm relief for hard-hit farmers. However, he added that he wanted a suspension of the government’s debt ceiling for at least two years.
Speaker Johnson tried to ram this bill through without Democratic support. In the closely divided House, all Democrats voted no, and 38 Republicans joined them and opposed the bill. From my days working in the House, I know there are a group of House Republicans who will never vote for an increase in the debt limit — I worked for one. The simple truth is that some Republicans believe that with the U.S. debt so large, they can’t justify an increase in the national debt unless the bill has large cuts in programs.
Speaker Johnson then negotiated with House Democrats, who insisted on removing the debt ceiling increase in return for their votes. With the debt ceiling removed, funds for disaster relief and farmers put in the bill, and a new funding deadline of March 14 established, the legislation passed the House on a vote of 366 to 34. All 34 no votes were cast by Republicans. A few hours later the Senate passed the bill on a vote of 85 to 11.
Next year
The votes last week didn’t solve any problems. They just kicked the can down the road. Next year, the Congress will again need to renew the CR, which now expires on March 14, and at some point, in the first half of the year, will need to increase the debt ceiling. With over 30 House Republicans likely to again vote against any increase in the ceiling, the Congressional Leadership and the White House are likely to have to turn to Democrats to get the legislation passed. Democrats in the House were frank in saying that the debt ceiling bill next year is likely to be the strongest leverage point they will have in the 119th Republican controlled Congress.
