The House rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan on Thursday, December 19, to fund federal operations and suspend the debt ceiling a day before a government shutdown, as Democrats refused to accommodate his sudden demands and the quick fix cobbled together by Republican leaders.
In a hastily convened evening vote punctuated by angry outbursts over the self-made crisis, the lawmakers failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage – but House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared determined to try again before Friday’s midnight deadline.
“We’re going to do the right thing here,” Johnson said ahead of the vote. But he didn’t even get a majority, with the bill failing 174-235. The outcome proved a massive setback for Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk, who rampaged against Johnson’s bipartisan compromise, which Republicans and Democrats had reached earlier to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown.
“We’re going to regroup and we will come up with another solution, so stay tuned,” Johnson said after the vote.
Hours earlier, Trump announced “SUCCESS in Washington!” in coming up with the new package that would keep the government running for three more months, add $100.4 billion in disaster assistance including for hurricane-hit states, and allow more borrowing through Jan. 30, 2027.
With a government shutdown at risk, Johnson has been fighting to figure out how to meet Trump’s sudden demands – and keep his own job – while federal offices are being told to prepare to shutter operations ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline.
Trump said early Thursday that Johnson will “easily remain speaker” for the next Congress if he “acts decisively and tough” in coming up with a new plan to also increase the debt limit , a stunning request just before the Christmas holidays that has put the beleaguered speaker in a bind. And if not, the president-elect warned of trouble ahead for Johnson and Republicans in Congress.
“Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” Trump told Fox News Digital.
A ‘productive meeting’
The tumultuous turn of events , coming just before Friday’s midnight deadline to fund the government and as lawmakers were preparing to head home for the holidays, sparks a familiar reminder of what it’s like in Trump-run Washington. Trump led Republicans into the longest government shutdown in history during the 2018 Christmas season and interrupted the holidays in 2020 by tanking a bipartisan COVID-relief bill and forcing a do-over.
For Johnson, who faces his own problems ahead of a Jan. 3 House vote to remain speaker, Trump’s demands kept him working long into the night to broker a new deal. Vice President-elect JD Vance joined the late-night meetings at the Capitol, bringing his young son in pajamas.
Trump’s allies even floated the far-fetched idea of giving billionaire Elon Musk the speaker’s gavel, since the speaker is not required to be a member of the Congress.
“We had a productive meeting. We’re going to continue to work through the night, in the morning to get, to get an agreement,” said Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., as he left the speaker’s office late Wednesday.
But adding an increase in the debt ceiling to what had been a bipartisan package is a show-stopper for Republicans who routinely vote against more borrowing. The current debt limit expires on Jan. 1 2025 and threatens to bog down the start of the new administration with months of negotiations to raise it. Trump wants the problem off the table before he joins the White House.
A ‘fluid’ situation
As senior Republicans broke from a Thursday morning meeting in the House speaker’s office there was no resolution yet.
Rep. Tom Emmer, the third-ranking Republican in leadership, said the situation was “fluid.”
Federal funding is scheduled to expire at midnight Friday, a current temporary government funding bill running out as Congress was preparing a new one to keep things running for a few months.
The bipartisan compromise brokered between Johnson and the Democrats, whose support will be needed in the deeply split House and Senate to ensure passage, also tacked on much-anticipated disaster aid – $100.4 billion for states hard hit by Hurricanes Helen and Milton and other natural calamities.
But the 1,500-page bill outraged conservatives for its spending and extras. Musk, in his new foray into politics, led the charge. The wealthiest man in the world used his social media platform X to amplify the unrest, and GOP lawmakers were besieged with phone calls to their offices telling them to oppose the plan.
Trump announced his own displeasure late Wednesday, and told Johnson to start over – with the new demand on the debt limit, something that generally takes months to negotiate and that his own party generally opposes.
House Democrats emerged from a closed-door meeting Thursday angry about the collapse of bipartisan legislation, saying a deal is a deal and they were standing by the agreement they reached with Johnson and Republicans.
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Trump’s new demands for a debt limit increase are “premature.”
‘Once again in chaos’
“This reckless Republican driven shutdown can be avoided,” Jeffries said. Republicans should “simply do what is right for the American people and stick with the bipartisan agreement that they themselves negotiated.”
While Democrats have floated their own ideas in the past for lifting, or even doing away with the debt limit caps that have created some of the toughest debates in Congress, they appear to be in no bargaining mood to save Johnson from Trump – even before the president-elect is sworn into office.
“Here we are once again in chaos,” said House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, who detailed the harm a government shutdown would cause Americans. “And what for? Because Elon Musk, an unelected man, said, ‘We’re not doing this deal, and Donald Trump followed along.'”
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget had provided initial communication to agencies about lapse planning last week, according to an official at the agency.
Late Wednesday, the Republicans had floated a new idea for a scaled-back bill that would simply keep the government running and provide the disaster assistance to hurricane ravaged regions. But almost as soon as it was being mentioned, Trump posted on social media he didn’t like that plan either.
Scalise said he understands Trump “wants to start the presidency on a sound footing and we want him to as well.”
But, Scalise said, “obviously we’ve got to get through this first and we’re going to get it resolved, hopefully tomorrow.
‘Is there a chance?’
American farmers, small business owners and wildfire survivors are among those who will suffer if Congress cannot agree on a new spending bill after President-elect Donald Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan that included more than $100 billion in disaster aid.
A mayor in Hawaii is watching closely to see what happens because a potential allocation of $1.6 billion in funding is on the line. It’s critical to ongoing disaster recovery efforts from the 2023 Maui fire, which proved to be the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.
“I think what funding does is provides people with hope so they can plan for their future,” Maui Mayor Richard Bissen told The Associated Press Thursday. “And the longer we go without funding, the longer people wallow and wonder, is there a chance? Is there a path? Do I cut my losses? Do I leave?”
While money from the Federal Emergency Management Administration has provided temporary relief, the disaster recovery funding was intended for long-term needs such as housing assistance and rebuilding infrastructure, he said. The historic town of Lahaina is still struggling after the August 2023 fire killed at least 102 people and leveled thousands of homes, leaving behind an estimated $5.5 billion in damage.
The money is also urgently needed after Hurricanes Helene and Milton slammed the southeastern United States one after the other this fall. Helene alone was the deadliest storm to hit the US mainland since Katrina in 2005, killing at least 221 people. Nearly half were in North Carolina where flooding and winds caused an estimated $60 billion in damage.
“I’m tracking this bill like a hawk right now, to be honest,” Asheville Tea Co. founder and CEO Jessie Dean said. “I think a lot of us are.”
Harris postpones travel plans
Vice President Kamala Harris canceled a planned trip to Los Angeles with Washington on the verge of a government shutdown. She had been scheduled to travel to her home state late Thursday, but instead will remain in the capital, the White House said.
Coming and going outside Speaker Johnson’s office Thursday night, House Republicans offered little clarity on a path forward for a budget deal after a Trump-endorsed proposal failed to pass.
The White House said President Joe Biden opposes the House Republican spending bill, saying, “Republicans are doing the bidding of their billionaire benefactors at the expense of hardworking Americans.”
“Republicans are breaking their word to support a bipartisan agreement that would lower prescription drug costs and make it harder to offshore jobs to China – and instead putting forward a bill that paves the way for tax breaks for billionaires while cutting critical programs working families count on, from Social Security to Head Start,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
She added: “President 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.”
‘We are still working diligently’
Rep. Kat Cammack, a Republican who voted against the bill, told reporters that “this was not an easy vote for constitutional conservatives.” She added, “we’re going to work through the night and figure out a plan.”
“We are still working diligently. And we are still making progress,” Rep. Lisa McClain said, without offering further details.
“We tried several things today most of our members went for, but the Democrats decided that they want to try and shut it down, but we’re going to keep working,” Rep. Steve Scalise, the Republican majority leader, told reporters.
The incoming Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Capitol Hill that Democrats voted against the legislation Thursday to avoid a government shutdown “because they didn’t want to give the president negotiating leverage during the first year of his new term.”
The bill would have suspended the nation’s debt ceiling for two years, helping Trump avoid a major negotiation with Democrats early next year.
Vance did not mention the 38 Republicans who voted against the bill, denying Johnson a victory as he has tried to appease Trump’s last-minute demands on the debt limit. Trump endorsed the bill shortly before the vote.
“They’ve asked for a shutdown,” Vance said of Democrats. “That’s exactly what they’re going to get.”
A partial government shutdown will begin after the end of day Friday if Congress does not extend government funding before then.
