“Swinging around the Christmas tree
Jump at the Christmas Party” – Brenda Lee
It’s a Christmas tradition on Capitol Hill.
An annual custom of swinging around a Congressional Christmas tree, adorned with hundreds of legislative ornaments, Advent appropriations and mistletoe modifications.
A political Polar Express runs through the halls of Congress almost every December. It’s always the last piece of legislation to chug out of the Congressional dock.
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“All aboard!” the driver shouts.
Load your Noel necessities into this train’s baggage car, or you’ll be left behind.
So, lawmakers decorated their “Christmas tree” the only way they know how.
That resulted a few days ago in the colossal 1,547-page stopgap spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.
The scope of the bill was impressive.
Do you want a hippo for Christmas? Surely you would have achieved it with this plan.
It wasn’t long before House Republicans killed the legislation.
The US Capitol Christmas tree is lit during a ceremony in Washington, DC, on December 3. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“It’s another mess,” fumed Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, the morning after congressional leaders released the bill. “This is what you get. ‘Do this or shut down the government.’ So it’s very disappointing.”
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., did not mince his criticism.
“It’s a total dumpster fire. I think it’s trash,” Burlison decreed. “It’s shameful that people are celebrating the arrival of DOGE and yet we go vote to add another billion dollars to the deficit. It’s ironic.”
Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., mocked his colleagues for talking out of both sides of their mouths when it came to spending.
“We keep saying we want to take the deficit and the debt seriously, but we keep voting to increase it. You can’t have it both ways,” he said. “This is irresponsible.”
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, lamented that this was normal.
“I mean, the swamp is going to flood, right?” -Roy offered.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said this fall:
“We have broken the Christmas bus. I have no intention of returning to that terrible tradition. There will be no Christmas bus,” Johnson declared on September 24. “We won’t do any ‘buses’.”
Then, yours truly pressed Johnson on his promise after frustrated Republicans berated him during a House Republican Conference meeting.
“You said in September that there would be no more Christmas buses. You didn’t do ‘buses’ anymore,” I asked. “But how come this isn’t just another Christmas tree for the holidays?”
“Well, it’s not a Christmas tree. It’s not a bus,” Johnson responded.
Johnson is technically right. In appropriations language, it’s not a true omnibus, although outside observers and many lawmakers themselves might colloquially refer to the massive bill as an “omnibus.” An omnibus is where Congress wraps all 12 individual spending measures into a single package. A “minibus” is a place where a handful of bills are bundled together.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks briefly to reporters just before a vote on an amended stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Still, I reminded Johnson of the opprobrium directed at this legislation.
“They called this group. They said it was trash. Those are their own members calling it that,” I pointed out.
“Well, they haven’t even seen it yet,” Johnson said, even though the bill materialized the night before. “I have a couple of friends who will say the same thing about any year-end funding measure. This is not an omnibus, okay? This is a small CR (continuing resolution) that we have had to add things to. They were out of our control.”
The legislation had a steep price tag to cover the full cost of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. A radioactive pay increase for legislators. Health care provisions. Language about concert ticket prices. Emergency help for farmers. And $110 billion to help cover the devastation from hurricanes Helene and Milton.
“It was intended to be, and was until recently, a very simple, very clear interim CR funding measure so we can get to next year when we have a unified government,” Johnson said. “But a couple of things have happened in between. We had, as we say, acts of God. We had these massive hurricanes.”
But then Elon Musk burned the bill. President-elect Trump demanded an immediate increase in the debt ceiling. Debt limit agreements are one of the most complex and controversial issues in Congress. They require weeks, if not months, of arduous negotiations.
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This wasn’t as simple as presenting Santa Claus at the mall with a wish list of items for Christmas morning.
The bill began losing support just hours before the House was scheduled to vote.
But to paraphrase Charles Dickens’ opening line in “A Christmas Carol” about Jacob Marley, “That bill was dead: to begin with. There’s no doubt about it.”
Democrats were stunned by last-minute external ultimatums. Especially since Johnson attended the Army-Navy football game last week with Trump. How come they haven’t discussed the contours of this bill?
“It was blown up by Elon Musk, who has apparently become the fourth branch of government,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., scoffed at the bill. “So who is our leader, (House Minority Leader) Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., supposed to negotiate with? Is it Mike Johnson? Is it the Speaker of the House? Or is it Donald Trump? Or is it Elon Musk? Or is it someone else?”
Johnson and company then prepared a slim 116-page bill to finance the government. But bipartisan lawmakers roasted that measure faster than chestnuts over a fire.
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, speaks during a town hall event in Pittsburgh on October 20. (Michael Swensen/Getty Images)
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., mocked Republicans for insisting they adhere to their “internal three-day rule.” That allows lawmakers to mull over bills for three days before voting. However, Republicans were now rushing the new bill to the floor faster than shoppers were rushing to return home with their treasures.
“Have you printed it? How many pages is it? What happened to the 72-hour rule?” Moskowitz mocked.
The bill plummeted and suffered an embarrassing defeat in the House of Representatives. It only obtained 174 votes in favor, punctuated by the surprising number of 38 Republican votes against.
“Democrats just voted to shut down the government,” said Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, vice president-elect. “They’ve asked for closure and I think that’s exactly what they’re going to get.”
On Friday, there was a third bill. And despite the complaints, lawmakers ultimately passed the legislation. There was no need to resort to “Plan Z,” popularized in “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.” The House passed the bill early in the afternoon. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., arrived on the Senate floor Friday night.
“Democrats and Republicans just reached an agreement that will allow us to pass the CR tonight before the midnight deadline,” Schumer said.
Critics of the third bill might characterize the entire process as a “railroad.” But it was a current railroad that prevented the Senate from passing the bill on time. An unnamed Republican senator suspended nominees to Amtrak’s board of directors. But once senators resolved that issue, the Senate finally sided with the House to avoid the shutdown around 12:45 a.m. ET on Saturday, 45 minutes after the midnight deadline.
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The scaled-down bill included disaster relief and emergency assistance for farmers. But when it comes to appropriations, the legislation simply renewed all current funding at current levels. It was definitely No a “Christmas tree.” It simply kept the government running until March 14. So there is no Christmas crisis.
Merry christmas.
But beware of the Ides of March.
