WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed legislation Saturday that averts a government shutdown, finally ending days of upheaval after Congress approved a stopgap funding plan just past the deadline and refused to take on President-elect Donald Trump’s core debt demands in the package.
The deal funds the government at current levels through March 14 and provides $100 billion disaster relief and $10 billion in agricultural aid for farmers.
“This agreement is a compromise, which means neither side got everything they wanted,” Biden said in a statement, adding that it “ensures the government can continue to operate at full capacity. This is good news for the American people.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, urged lawmakers to “fulfill our commitments” and not allow a shutdown of federal operations. But the outcome was uncertain at the end of a tumultuous week as Trump insisted the deal included an escalate in the government’s debt limit. If not, he said, let the shutdown “start now.”
Johnson’s revised plan was approved by a vote of 366 to 34, and after midnight it was passed by the Senate by a vote of 85 to 11. By then, the White House said it had stopped preparing to close the plant.
“There will be no government shutdown,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Johnson, who spoke with Trump after the House vote, said the compromise was a “good result for the country” and that the president-elect was “certainly happy with that result as well.”
The end product was the third attempt by Johnson, the beleaguered speaker, to achieve one of the basic requirements of the federal government – keeping it open. The difficulties have raised questions about whether Johnson will be able to keep his job in the face of incensed Republican colleagues and cooperate with Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Muskwho called for legislative games from afar.
The election of the next speaker of the House is scheduled for January 3, 2025, when the up-to-date Congress convenes. Republicans will have an extremely slim majority, 220 to 215, leaving Johnson with little margin for error as he tries to win the speaker’s gavel.
House Republican Andy Harris of Maryland criticized Republicans for the bill’s spending deficits and said he is currently “undecided” about GOP leadership. Others are also signaling dissatisfaction with Johnson.
But Trump’s last-minute demand for a debt ceiling was almost impossible, and Johnson had no choice but to work around the pressure. The speaker knew that a slim majority of Republicans alone would not have enough support to pass any funding package because many Republican deficit hawks preferred to cut the federal government and would not allow further debt.
Instead, Republicans, who will have full control of the White House, House and Senate in the up-to-date year, with gigantic tax cut plans and other priorities, are showing that they must routinely rely on Democrats for the votes needed to keep pace with the routine activities of governing.
The federal debt is approximately $36 trillion, and a surge in inflation following the coronavirus pandemic has pushed up the government’s external financing costs to the point that debt service next year will exceed national security spending. The last time lawmakers raised the debt limit was in June 2023. Instead of raising the limit by a dollar amount, lawmakers suspended the debt limit until January 1, 2025.
There is no need to escalate this limit at this time because the Treasury Department can start using so-called “emergency measures” to ensure that America defaults on its debts. Some estimate that these accounting maneuvers could push the default deadline to summer 2025. However, Trump wanted to avoid this because a raise would be necessary during his presidency.
GOP leaders have said the debt ceiling will be debated as part of tax and border packages in the up-to-date year. Republicans then struck a so-called handshake agreement to raise the debt limit while cutting spending by $2.5 trillion over 10 years.
It was essentially the same deal that failed on Thursday night – minus Trump’s demand for the debt. But it is much smaller than the original deal Johnson made with Democratic and Republican leaders – a 1,500-page bill that Trump and Musk rejected, forcing him to start over. It included a long list of other bills — including much-derided raises for lawmakers — but also other measures with broad bipartisan support that now have a harder road to becoming law.
Trump, who has not yet been sworn in, is showing power but also the limits of his influence in Congress by intervening and coordinating with Mar-a-Lago along with Muskwho heads the up-to-date Department of Government Effectiveness.
