The House of Representatives rejects the spending deal pushed by Trump as the shutdown approaches
A day before a potential government shutdown, the House of Representatives flatly rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan to fund operations and suspend the debt ceiling, with Democrats and dozens of Republicans refusing to meet his surprise demands.
In a hastily called vote on the evening of December 19, punctuated by outbursts of anger over the self-inflicted crisis, lawmakers failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed to pass the resolution — but House Speaker Mike Johnson seemed determined to reassess before a mid-term deadline. the night. On December 20th.
“We will regroup and we will come up with another solution, so stay tuned,” Johnson said after the vote. The combined plan didn’t even get a majority, as the bill failed by 174 votes to 235.
The outcome proved a massive setback for Mr. Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk, who had attacked Johnson’s bipartisan compromise, which Republicans and Democrats had reached earlier to prevent a Christmas government shutdown.
It offers a preview of the turmoil to come when Mr. Trump returns to the White House with Republicans in control of the House and Senate. During his first term, Trump led Republicans through the longest government shutdown in history during the 2018 Christmas season, and halted the holidays in 2020 by passing a bipartisan COVID-19 relief bill and forcing a reinstatement.
Hours earlier, on December 19, Trump declared “Success in Washington!” In arriving at the new package that would keep the government running for another three months, add $100.4 billion in disaster aid including for states affected by hurricanes, and allow more borrowing through January 30, 2027.
“Speaker Mike Johnson and the House of Representatives have reached a very good agreement,” Trump said.
But Republicans, who spent 24 hours negotiating largely on their own to undo the additions that conservatives opposed and come up with a new plan, faced a wall of resistance from Democrats, who were in no hurry to appease Mr. Trump’s demands — or Mr. Musk’s.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that Democrats are sticking to the original agreement with Johnson and described the new agreement as “laughable.”
“It’s not a serious proposal,” Mr. Jeffries said as he walked into a closed Democratic Party meeting. Inside, Democrats were chanting: “Hell, no!”
All day, Johnson struggled to figure out how to meet Trump’s near-impossible demands — and keep his job — while federal offices were told to prepare to shut down operations.
The new proposal shrank the 1,500-page bill to 116 pages and dropped a number of additions — notably the first pay increase for lawmakers in more than a decade, which would have allowed for a raise of up to 3.8%. It sparked particular disdain when Mr Musk turned his social media army against the bill.
Trump said early on December 20 that Johnson would “easily remain president” of the next Congress if he “acted decisively and aggressively” in coming up with a new plan to raise the debt limit as well, a stunning request just before that. A Christmas holiday that put the beleaguered speaker in trouble.
If not, the president-elect has warned of problems awaiting Johnson and Republicans in Congress.
“Anyone who supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democratic quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be brought to the forefront and eliminated as quickly as possible,” Trump told Fox News Digital.
The turbulent turn of events, which comes as lawmakers prepare to go home for the holidays, raises a familiar reminder of what it’s like in a Trump-run Washington.
Mr. Musk and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance tried to shift the blame to Democrats, even though rank-and-file Republicans helped sink Mr. Trump’s plan.
“They asked for a shutdown,” Mr. Vance said of Democrats. “That’s exactly what they’ll get.”
For Mr. Johnson, who faces his own problems before the House votes on Jan. 3 to remain in office, Trump’s demands have left him extremely vulnerable, forcing him to abandon his word with Democrats and work into the night to broker the new approach.
Trump’s allies have even floated the far-fetched idea of giving Mr. Musk the Speaker’s gavel, as the Speaker of the House is not required to be a member of Congress. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, posted that she was “open” to the idea.
Democrats were out of their depth, seeing this as a fitting conclusion after one of the most fruitless congressional sessions in modern times.
“Here we are again in chaos,” said Democratic House Representative Katherine Clark, who detailed the damage a government shutdown could cause to Americans. “Why? Because Elon Musk, an unelected man, said, ‘We’re not going to do this deal,’ and Donald Trump followed suit.”
As he left the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said: “Now is the time to return to bipartisanship.”
The debate heated up in the House of Representatives as lawmakers blamed each other for the chaos.
At one point, Rep. Mark Molinaro, who was presiding over the session, hit the speaker’s gavel so hard that it broke.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Mr. Trump was publicly turning on those who opposed him.
One hardline Republican, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, angered Trump by refusing to approve the plan. Mr. Roy, in turn, told his colleagues in the Republican Party that they did not respect themselves because of the country’s accumulated debt.
“It’s a shame!” Mr. Roy thundered as he stood on the Democratic side of the aisle and motioned to his Republican colleagues.
The watered-down package includes federal money to rebuild Baltimore’s collapsed Key Bridge, but drops the transfer of separate land that could have paved the way for a new Washington Commanders’ football stadium.
It jettisons a long list of other bipartisan bills that have gained support as lawmakers in both parties try to finish work for the year. It extends government funds until March 14.
Adding a debt ceiling increase to what has been a bipartisan package is a drag on Republicans who want to cut government and routinely vote against more borrowing. Nearly three dozen Republicans voted against it.
While Democrats have floated their own ideas in the past to raise or even eliminate debt caps — and Sen. Elizabeth Warren has suggested the same — they appear to be in no bargaining mood to save Johnson from Mr. Trump — even before the president-elect is sworn in.
The current debt limit expires on January 1, 2025, and Mr. Trump wants to take the issue off the table before he joins the White House.
It was Mr Musk, in his new foray into politics, who led the charge. The world’s richest man 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.
Rep. Steve Womack, an Arkansas Republican and a top appropriator, said the collapse of the bipartisan bill signals what lies ahead in the new year, “and perhaps serves as a good introduction now to the 119th Congress.”
The White House Office of Management and Budget provided initial communications to agencies about possible planning for the shutdown last week, according to an agency official.
Mr. Johnson left the Capitol late on the night of December 19 with just two words when asked about the way forward.
He replied: “We’ll see.”
This story was reported by the Associated Press. AP writers Jill Colvin, Stephen Groves, Farnoush Amiri and Matt Brown contributed to this report.