Republicans push new deal to avert US government shutdown / Photo: Kena Betancur - AFP/File
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Republicans push new deal to avert US government shutdown
Republicans in the US Congress agreed on a new funding package Thursday aimed at averting a holiday-season government shutdown, after an earlier cross-party deal was derailed by President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
Trump threw his weight behind the latest proposal, which addresses objections to the mammoth package that prompted him and Musk, his incoming "efficiency czar," to trash the previous version.
Democrats immediately dismissed the proposal, however, dashing hopes that they would give Republicans the votes they need in the House of Representatives to get the bill approved before departments begin winding up their operations on Saturday.
"The... proposal is not serious, it's laughable. Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown," Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said.
Earlier, Trump hailed the compromise deal between factions of his own party.
"SUCCESS in Washington! Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good Deal for the American People," Trump posted on social media, celebrating the "American Relief Act of 2024" and urging support from rank-and-file lawmakers.
With Democrats digging in their heels and insisting on the earlier agreed deal that Trump torpedoed, a shutdown looked almost certain -- closing all manner of federal agencies and potentially sending almost a million workers home without pay over Christmas.
Funding the government is always fraught and lawmakers are under pressure this time around because they failed to agree on full-year budgets for 2025 despite months of negotiations.
Party leaders had landed on a stopgap bill -- known as a "continuing resolution" (CR) -- to keep operations functioning through mid-March.
Major Trump donor and ally Musk spent much of Wednesday bombarding his 208 million followers on X with posts trashing the deal, and amplifying complaints from debt hawks in the House who balked at numerous expensive add-ons shoehorned into the package.
Twelve hours later, Trump, who appeared to be playing catch-up, began threatening the reelection prospects of Republicans thinking of supporting the package and demanding out of the blue that the bill increase or even scrap the country's debt limit.
The new text keeps federal agencies running until mid-March, Trump said, and allows the government to keep borrowing without needing any new authorizations from Congress for two years, as well as earmarking $110 billion for disaster aid.
It usually takes weeks to negotiate and enact hikes in the federal borrowing cap, which since the 1940s has limited how much debt the country can rack up.
With government functions due to begin winding up at midnight going into Saturday, Trump's latest announcement may not be enough to convince lawmakers to give it the green light.
- No salaries, no parks -
Republican House Speaker Johnson has been facing criticism from all sides for his handling of the negotiations and his gavel looks likely to be under threat when he stands for reelection in January.
The Louisiana congressman appeared to have misjudged his own members' tolerance for the original CR's spiraling costs, and for allowing himself to have been blindsided by Musk and Trump.
He invited a parade of disgruntled Republicans into his office at the Capitol Thursday as he explored the slimmed-down funding patch.
Democrats, who control the Senate, have little political incentive to help Republicans and have insisted they will only vote for the agreed package, meaning Trump's party will have to go it alone.
This is something the fractious, divided party -- which can afford to lose only a handful of members in any House vote -- has not managed in any major bill in this Congress.
Asked if Democrats would support a pared-back bill with an extended borrowing cap, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries offered little hope that he would bail Johnson out.
"House Democrats are going to continue to fight for families, farmers and the future of working-class Americans. And in order to do that, the best path forward is the bipartisan agreement that we negotiated," he told reporters.
While voicing frustration over spending levels, Trump's main objection was that Congress was leaving him to handle a debt-limit increase -- invariably a contentious, time-consuming fight -- rather than including it in the text.
"Now we can Make America Great Again, very quickly, which is what the People gave us a mandate to accomplish," Trump posted.
P.Renard--JdB
