- The legislation rejected Trump’s call to greenlight the trillion-dollar debt.
- The White House says President Biden wants to sign the Senate bill.
- The speaker says Republicans will have more power to influence spending next year.
WASHINGTON: The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives on Friday passed legislation that would avert a midnight government shutdown, defying President-elect Donald Trump’s call to green-light trillions of dollars in new debt.
After that, the Democratic-controlled Senate will need to pass a bill to ensure the government is funded beyond midnight (0500GMT Saturday), when current funding expires. . The White House said President Joe Biden plans to sign it if he does.
The legislation would extend government funding through March 14, providing $100 billion for disaster-stricken states and $10 billion for farmers. It would not raise the debt ceiling — a tough task Trump has urged Congress to do before he takes office on Jan. 20.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Republicans will have more power to influence government spending next year, when they hold majorities in both houses of Congress and Trump is in the White House.
“This was a necessary step to bridge the gap, to put us in a moment where we can put our fingerprints on the final spending decisions,” he told reporters after the vote. He said that Trump supported the package.
A government shutdown would disrupt everything from law enforcement to national parks and suspend paychecks for millions of federal workers. A travel industry trade group has warned that the shutdown could cost airlines, hotels and other companies $1 billion a week and cause widespread disruption during the busy Christmas season. Officials warned that travelers could face long lines at airports.
The package, which passed by a bipartisan vote of 366-34, is similar to a bipartisan plan that was abandoned earlier this week after an online fiasco by Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk. That said, it includes many unrelated provisions, such as salary. Raises for lawmakers and crackdown on pharmacy benefit managers.
Republicans killed most of those elements of the bill — including a provision limiting investment in China that Democrats said would conflict with Musk’s interests.
“He clearly doesn’t want to answer questions about how much he plans to expand his business in China and how much American technology he plans to sell,” Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro said on the House floor.
Trump has appointed Musk, the world’s richest man, to head a budget-cutting task force, but Musk holds no official position in Washington.
Musk wrote on his social media platform X that he was happy with the package. “It went from a bill that weighed a pound,” he posted.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the package still achieved key goals, such as providing disaster relief, averting a shutdown and preventing Republicans from raising the debt ceiling that would make it easier to cut taxes. will
“We have successfully advanced the needs of everyday Americans, but there are still some things to work on and we look forward to that fight in the new year,” he told reporters.