President-elect Donald Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan Wednesday to avoid a government shutdown around Christmas, instead instructing House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans to essentially renegotiate—just days before a deadline when federal funding expires.
Trump’s unexpected entry into the debate and new demands, threw Congress into disarray as lawmakers attempted to finish their work and return home for the holidays. Johnson is scrambling to devise a new strategy before Friday’s deadline to keep the government open.
“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH,” Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance declared in a statement.
The president-elect presented an almost unrealistic proposal, combining a continuation of government funds with a highly controversial provision to raise the nation’s debt limit, a move that his own party routinely opposes. “Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” they concluded.
Democrats condemned the Republican revolt over the stopgap measure, which would have also provided $100 billion in disaster relief to states devastated by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, among other natural disasters.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries ordered House Republicans to shut down the government.
They inflict damage on the working-class Americans they purport to defend. You break the bipartisan agreement, and you are responsible for the consequences.”
Already, the massive 1,500-page bill was on the verge of collapse, as hard-right conservatives opposed the increased spending, aided by Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk, who rejected the plan almost as soon as it was released late Tuesday night.
Rank-and-file lawmakers complained about the increased spending, which included their first pay raises in more than a decade, coming after one of the most unproductive and chaotic sessions in modern history. A number of Republicans were waiting for Trump to tell them whether to vote yes or no.
Even the addition of much-needed disaster aid, totaling $100.4 billion in the aftermath of hurricanes and other natural disasters that ravaged states this year, as well as $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers, failed to sway the budget-cutting GOP.
“This should not pass,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The outcome is unsurprising for Johnson, who, like previous Republican House speakers, has been unable to persuade his majority to support routine federal government operations that they would prefer to cut.
All of this demonstrates how difficult it will be for Republicans to unify and lead the country next year, when they control the House, Senate, and White House. And it emphasizes how much Johnson and other GOP leaders rely on Trump’s approval to get any legislative package passed.
“Does President Trump want Republicans to vote for the CR or shut down the government?” Without direction, confusion reigns,” said retiring Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, in a post on X.
Musk, who heads the new Department of Government Efficiency, warned that “any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years!”
Musk, the world’s richest man, is not making idle threats. He played a significant role in financing Trump’s victory and has the ability to significantly influence political careers through his America PAC.
According to Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the issue with “an oligarchy” is that “a handful of wealthy people run everything, and everyone is supposed to live in fear of them; their wealth becomes an instrument of coercive power over everything.”
As is often the case with major legislation, Johnson will expect Democrats, who negotiated the final product with Senate GOP leadership, to provide sufficient support to ensure passage. The federal government’s funding runs out at midnight Friday.
“The sooner Congress acts, the better,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer declared.
The final package extends existing government programs and services at their current levels for a few more months, until March 14, 2025.
The stopgap measure is required because Congress has failed to pass annual appropriations bills to fund all of the federal government’s agencies, from the Pentagon and national security agencies to health, welfare, transportation, and other essential domestic services.
When the fiscal year ended on September 30, Congress simply postponed the issue by approving a temporary funding bill that expires Friday.
However, the inches-thick bill goes beyond routine funding and includes several other measures that lawmakers are attempting to pass before the end of the current congressional session, particularly since some elected officials will not be returning in the new year.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., referred to it as a junk sandwich and used a swear word. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, stated that many lawmakers “are a little disappointed with how this last week has worked out.”
Then there’s the pay raise.
The elimination of a pay freeze provision from the previous short-term spending bill has caused some lawmakers to express concern. According to a Congressional Research Service report, this change could allow for a maximum 3.8% pay adjustment, or $6,600, in 2025, bringing their annual salary to $180,600.
The last raise for members of Congress came in 2009, when their annual salary increased by 2.8% to $174,000. Had the pay freeze not occurred since 2009, the salaries of members would have been approximately $217,900.
Salaries have decreased by about 31% since 2009, adjusted for inflation, according to the research report.
“By what measure do we deserve a pay increase?” said Republican Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina.
The package includes full federal funding to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed due to a cargo ship that reported losing power shortly before the crash. The proceeds from insurance payments and litigation will reimburse federal taxpayers.
There is also a provision in the bill that would transfer the land on which the old RFK Stadium stood from the federal government to the District of Columbia, potentially leading to the construction of a new stadium for the Washington Commanders.
On the health care front, the legislation aims to expand coverage of telehealth appointments for Medicare enrollees while also limiting how much money pharmacy benefits managers—the companies that negotiate how and what drugs are covered by insurance plans—make from those deals.
The bill also includes provisions aimed at countering China, such as expanding on President Joe Biden’s executive order to restrict investments in countries that pose a national security threat to the US.
Blocking China’s high-tech ambitions is one of the few issues in Washington that has bipartisan support from Republicans and Democrats.
