WASHINGTON (Reuters) –A financing bill sponsored by Donald Trump failed in the United States House of Representatives on Thursday, with dozens of Republicans defying the president-elect, leaving Congress with no clear plan to avoid a rapidly approaching government shutdown that may affect Christmas travel.
The vote exposed fault lines in Trump’s Republican Party, which may resurface next year when they control the White House and both chambers of Congress.
Trump had pressed Congress to complete unfinished business before he took office on Jan. 20, but members of the party’s right flank refused to approve a package that would increase spending and pave the way for a proposal that would add trillions more to the federal government’s $36 trillion debt.
“I am absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go to the American people and say you think this is fiscally responsible,” said Republican Representative Chip Roy, one of 38 Republicans who voted against the package.
The package was defeated by a vote of 174-235, barely hours after being hastily crafted by Republican leaders eager to meet Trump’s demands. A previous bipartisan agreement was scrapped after Trump and the world’s wealthiest person, Elon Musk, spoke out against it on Wednesday.
When reporters asked Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson about the next steps following the failed vote, he provided no details.
“We will come up with another solution,” he assured me.
Government financing is set to expire at midnight on Friday. If Congress fail to extend the deadline, the United States government would go into partial shutdown, disrupting financing for everything from border security to national parks and cutting off paychecks for more than 2 million federal employees.
The United States Transportation Security Administration advised that travelers over the busy holiday season may encounter long queues at airports.
The bill that failed on Thursday was broadly similar to the prior one, which Musk and Trump had criticized as a wasteful handout to Democrats.
It would have prolonged government funding until March, granted $100 billion in disaster aid, and suspended debt. Republicans deleted other aspects from the initial proposal, like as a pay rise for lawmakers and new requirements for pharmaceutical benefit managers.
At Trump’s request, the new version would also have waived national debt limits for two years, making it easier to pass the big tax cuts he promised.
Before the vote, Johnson told reporters that the package will prevent disruptions, wrap up loose ends, and make it simpler for Congress to cut spending by hundreds of billions of dollars when Trump takes office next year.
“Government is too big, it does too many things, and it does few things well,” according to him.
TEEING UP TAX CUT
Democrats slammed the idea as a cover for a budget-busting tax cut that would mostly benefit wealthy supporters like Musk, the world’s richest person, while saddled the country with trillions of dollars in new debt.
“How dare you lecture America about fiscal responsibility, ever?” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries stated during the floor debate.
Even if the plan had cleared the House, it would have faced significant challenges in the Senate, which is presently controlled by Democrats. The White House stated that Democratic President Joe Biden did not endorse it.
Previous debates over the debt ceiling have alarmed financial markets, as a US government default would cause credit shocks around the world. The limit has been suspended under an agreement that officially expires on January 1, but lawmakers are unlikely to address the problem before the spring.
When Trump returns to power, he intends to enact tax cuts that could lower revenues by $8 trillion over ten years, increasing the debt without offsetting spending cutbacks. He has committed not to slash retirement and health benefits for seniors, which account for a sizable portion of the budget and are expected to expand significantly in the coming years.
The last government shutdown occurred in December 2018 and January 2019 during Trump’s first term.
The tumult also threatened to depose Johnson, a mild-mannered Louisianan who was unexpectedly elected speaker last year after the party’s right side pushed out then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy over a government funding bill. Johnson has regularly had to resort to Democrats for assistance in enacting legislation when he was unable to secure support from his own party.
He attempted the same feat on Thursday, but fell short.
Several Republicans have stated they will not vote for Johnson as speaker when Congress reconvenes in January, potentially setting up another messy leadership contest in the weeks before Trump takes office.