Name: House Passes New Government Funding Bill Hours Before Shutdown Deadline
Uploaded: 2024-12-21T06:01:09.000Z
Description: With hours to go before a midnight government shutdown, the House approved a new plan from House Speaker Mike Johnson that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, but dropped President-elect Donald Trump’s demands for a debt limit increase into the new year.

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With hours to go before a midnight government shutdown, the House approved a new plan from House Speaker Mike Johnson that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, but dropped President-elect Donald Trump’s demands for a debt limit increase into the new year.

The vote came a day after the House rejected Trump’s new plan to fund operations and suspend the debt ceiling, as Democrats and dozens of Republicans refused to accommodate his sudden demands.

Here’s the latest:
<h2>Senate Passes Short-Term Spending Bill</h2>
Facing a government shutdown deadline, the Senate rushed through final passage early Dec. 21 of a bipartisan plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, dropping President-elect Donald Trump's demands for a debt limit increase into the new year.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had insisted Congress would “meet our obligations” and not allow federal operations to shutter ahead of the Christmas holiday season. But the day's outcome was uncertain after Trump doubled down on his insistence that a debt ceiling increase be included in any deal—if not, he said in an early morning post, let the closures “start now.”

The House approved Johnson's new bill overwhelmingly, 366–34. The Senate worked into the night to pass it, 85–11, just past the deadline. At midnight, the White House said it had ceased shutdown preparations.

“This is a good outcome for the country, ” Johnson said after the House vote, adding he had spoken with Trump and the president-elect “was certainly happy about this outcome, as well.”

President Joe Biden, who has played a less public role in the process throughout a turbulent week, was expected to sign the measure into law Saturday.
<h2>Senate on Course to Pass Short-Term Spending Bill: Schumer</h2>
“I have very good news for my colleagues and for the country,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in announcing a time agreement for the vote.

And while the bill won’t get to President Joe Biden to be signed into law before funding lapses, don’t expect to see an impact on government operations.

There will not be agency furloughs, and most federal workers are already off the clock over the weekend anyhow.

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a budget watchdog, 10 funding gaps of three days or fewer have occurred since 1981. Most took place over a weekend, when government operations were only minimally affected.
<h2>Senate Moving Toward Final Vote on Government Funding</h2>
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says Senate Republicans and Democrats have reached an agreement that will allow them to take a vote late Friday on the government funding package.

Schumer said on the Senate floor that the time agreement would allow passage “before the midnight deadline.”

There will be a series of votes ahead of final passage, but support for the legislation is clear in the Senate.
<h2>House Approves Government Funding Package</h2>
The House of Representatives on Dec. 20 approved a package to keep the federal government funded through March 14, potentially averting a government shutdown.

Lawmakers approved the funding bill in a 366–34 vote. The bill was brought to the floor under suspension of the rules, meaning that it required two-thirds support to pass. All Democrats joined in support of the package, while all votes against the legislation were from Republicans. One Democrat voted present.

Aside from extending the deadline for a government shutdown, the 118-page legislation includes $110 billion in emergency hurricane relief, extends the farm bill for one year, and includes a series of other minor provisions. It doesn’t include any measures on the debt ceiling, despite President-elect Donald Trump’s call that the issue be dealt with during the current lame-duck session.

The package now heads to the U.S. Senate, where work on it may not finish until the early morning hours of Dec. 21.

If it’s not passed by 12:00 am ET, the government will—at least temporarily—go into a shutdown.

President Joe Biden also has yet to weigh in on the bill.
<h2>Republicans Release Government Funding Plan C</h2>
Republicans have <a href="https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20241216/ARA%2012.20.pdf">released</a> their “Plan C” legislation for funding the government with less than eight hours until a shutdown begins.

During a Dec. 20 conference meeting, Republicans decided to move forward with the 118-page plan, which would punt the government funding deadline to March 14. It wraps in an extension of the farm bill for one year and includes $110 billion in emergency hurricane relief funding alongside a series of other minor proposals.

It doesn’t include any measures related to the debt ceiling—for which President-elect Donald Trump has advocated as part of the funding package—hoping to head off a fight with congressional Democrats on the issue in mid-2025.

It’s expected to receive a vote later tonight. Its fate remains uncertain as partisan and intra-partisan divides continue to split lawmakers on Capitol Hill. It will head to the floor under a suspension of the rules, meaning a two-thirds majority is required for passage.

Should the bill fail, it almost guarantees the government will shut down.

Trump has yet to weigh in on the new proposal.

Even if Trump were to endorse the new proposal, it would mostly need Democrats’ support to pass, as many Republicans oppose funding extensions on principle.
<h2 class="mb-0 pb-2 ap-font-bold">Johnson Says House Republicans Have Agreed on a New Spending Deal</h2>
House Speaker Mike Johnson says Republicans had reached a consensus on a deal to fund the government but provided no details on its contours.

“We have a unified Republican Conference. There is a unanimous agreement in the room that we need to move forward,” Johnson told reporters as he exited a House GOP conference meeting.

“I will not telegraph to you the specific details of that yet, because I’ve got a couple of things I got to wrap up in a few moments upstairs, but I expect that we will be proceeding forward,” he said.

“We will not have a government shutdown,” Johnson declared.

The speaker added that lawmakers “will meet our obligations for our farmers who aid for the disaster victims all over the country, and for making sure that military and essential services and everyone who relies upon the federal government for a paycheck is paid over the holidays. I’ll give you the more details here in just a few moments.”
<h2>At White House</h2>
President Joe Biden has discussed the potential shutdown with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday.

“There’s still time,” Jean-Pierre said, to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Jean-Pierre pushed back after getting numerous questions at her daily briefing Friday about why President Biden hasn’t spoken publicly about the possibility of a government shutdown.

“This is not for the president to fix,” she said. “Republicans need to fix the mess that they caused.”
<h2>House GOP Is Meeting This Afternoon</h2>
The House GOP conference will be meeting in the afternoon on Dec. 20, a lawmaker familiar with the situation told The Epoch Times.

This comes just hours before the government is set to shut down. The contours of a deal have been reached, but the rank-and-file need to come to a consensus, the lawmaker said.

Additionally, according to the lawmaker, the issues surrounding the spending matter will be voted on as separate bills: funding the government at current levels, known as a continuing resolution; disaster relief; and assistance to farmers.
<h2>Rep. Chip Roy Objects to Clean Debt Ceiling Increase, Expresses Skepticism Over DOGE</h2>
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said on Glenn Beck’s radio show on Dec. 20 that the debt ceiling should not be raised without fiscal reforms.

“My view was I could not support that without a clear understanding of what cuts we will get in mandatory spending next year and [the] undoing of the Inflation Reduction Act, the undoing of the student loans,” he said.

“We need [an] actual understanding of what the cuts will be because, otherwise, we are asking us to accept a $5 trillion limit in our credit card increase in exchange for nothing, literally, in exchange for nothing but hope.”

Roy said that while negotiating on Dec. 19, word leaked out that he was being an obstacle in negotiations, which he denied.

While entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy—who will be running an outside group called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—are serious about cutting government spending, Roy said, “there are obstacles to that objective."

I need to know the sincerity of how we deal with those obstacles, both structural in the government and human,” he said.
<h2>Schumer Urges Quick Resolution to Funding Negotiations</h2>
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson to return to a stopgap funding agreement he had negotiated with Democrats.

Schumer called that agreement in a floor speech Friday morning “the quickest, simplest, and easiest way we can make sure the government stays open while delivering critical emergency aid to the American people.”

Democratic leaders so far have demanded that he stick to their deal in order to gain their support to pass it through Congress.
<h2>Trump: ‘Whoever Is President’ Owns Debt Ceiling Dilemma</h2>
The responsibility for addressing the national debt ceiling lies with “whoever is president,” President-elect Donald Trump noted amid lawmakers’ rush to avert a government shutdown.

Trump has advocated for abolishing the debt ceiling, which has been a recurring issue in recent years as the national debt continues to climb.

Early Friday morning, the president-elect reiterated that call via his Truth Social platform.

“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” he <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113683687655180611">wrote</a>. “Without this, we should never make a deal.

“Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President.”

Hours later, Trump expounded on those comments.

“If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under ‘TRUMP,’” he <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113685244784643200">wrote</a>. “This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!”
<h2>Vote at 10 AM, Says Lawmaker</h2>
A vote on Plan C to fund the government and, therefore, avoid a shutdown is set for 10 a.m. ET on Dec. 20, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) told reporters.

“We’re going to be negotiating here [among House Republicans],” she said. There’ll be no deals with the Democrats.”

Current funding expires at midnight tonight ET.
<h2>Plan C Reached, Says Johnson</h2>
After a government funding bill failed to pass last night with 38 Republicans and all but two Democrats voting against it, a plan has been reached for the third time. The details are to be determined.

“Yeah, yeah, we have a plan,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters as he entered the Capitol on Friday. “We’re expecting votes this morning, so you all stay tuned. We’ve got a plan.”

The failed vote came after President-elect Donald Trump pushed for the new bill after coming out against the first proposed deal.
<h2>Harris Cancels Trip to Stay in D.C. as Shutdown Looms</h2>
Vice President Kamala Harris cancelled 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.
<h2>What to Know About a Government Shutdown</h2>
A government shutdown happens when Congress doesn’t pass legislation either temporarily or more permanently funding the government, and such a measure isn’t signed by the president.

If Congress doesn’t approve a continuing resolution or more permanent spending measure by Friday, the federal government will shut down.

When the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, Congress passed a temporary funding bill to keep the government in operation.

Each federal agency determines its own plan for how to handle a shutdown, but basically any government operations deemed non-essential stop happening, and hundreds of thousands of federal employees see their work disrupted.

Sometimes workers are furloughed, meaning that they keep their jobs but temporarily don’t work until the government reopens. Other federal workers may stay on the job but without pay, with the expectation that they would be paid back in full once the government reopens.

The basic rules for who works and who doesn’t date back to the early 1980s and haven’t been significantly modified since. Under a precedent-setting memorandum penned by then-President Ronald Reagan budget chief David Stockman, federal workers are exempted from furloughs if their jobs are national security-related or if they perform essential activities that “protect life and property.”

Essential government agencies like the FBI, the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard remain open. Transportation Security Administration officers would continue to staff airport checkpoints. The U.S. Postal Service also won’t be affected because it’s an independent agency.

But national parks and monuments would close, and while troops would stay at their posts, many civilian employees in agencies like the Department of Defense would be sent home. Court systems would be affected, too, with civil proceedings paused, while criminal prosecutions continue.

Automated tax collection would stay on track, but the Internal Revenue Service would stop auditing tax returns.

<em>Read full article <a href="https://www.ntd.com/closures-social-security-checks-furloughs-what-a-government-shutdown-might-mean_1035714.html">here</a></em>
<h2>Bill Fails in House, Next Steps Remain Uncertain</h2>
The House voted down a pared-down, Trump-backed plan to fund the government with just more than 24 hours until a government shutdown begins.

In a 174–235 vote, lawmakers rejected the proposal. That included almost all Democrats and a slate of conservative Republicans. The bill, which advanced to the floor via a method known as suspension, needed a two-thirds majority to pass.

In addition to extending the deadline for government funding through March 14, the 116-page proposal included around $30.1 billion for emergency hurricane relief, a one-year extension of the farm bill, and a suspension of the debt ceiling until Jan. 30, 2027—aligning with a demand made by President-elect Donald Trump.

The pared-down proposal replaced a previous 1,547 page government funding plan that faced strong pushback from Trump and many congressional Republicans.

Democrats, who have historically backed government funding measures, objected to the withdrawal of the original proposal that emerged from weeks of bicameral negotiations. Several Republicans objected to the inclusion of a provision to raise the debt ceiling as well as new spending in the bill.

The bill’s failure leaves next steps unclear, as the government is set to go into a shutdown at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturday.

<em>Read full article <a href="https://www.ntd.com/house-rejects-alternative-government-funding-proposal_1035610.html">here</a></em>

<em>Epoch Times reporters Samantha Flom, Arjun Singh, Jackson Richman, and Joseph Lord and The Associated Press contributed to this report.</em>

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