President Joe Biden signed a bill into law Saturday that averts a government shutdown, ending days of turmoil after Congress passed a temporary funding plan just after the deadline and rejected the president’s core debt demands. elect Donald Trump in the package.
The agreement funds the government at current levels through March 14 and provides $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in agricultural assistance to farmers.
“This deal represents a compromise, meaning neither side got everything they wanted,” Biden said in a statement, adding that it “ensures the government can continue to operate at full capacity.” “That is good news for the American people.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, had insisted that lawmakers would “meet our obligations” and not allow federal operations to be shut down. But the outcome at the end of a tumultuous week was uncertain after Trump insisted the deal included an increase in the government’s borrowing limit. If not, he had said, then let the closures “start now.”
Johnson’s revised plan passed by 366 votes to 34, and the Senate approved it by a vote of 85 to 11 after midnight. By then, the White House said it had ceased preparations for the shutdown.
“There will be no government shutdown,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Johnson, who had spoken with Trump after the House vote, said the compromise was “a good outcome for the country” and that the president-elect was “certainly happy with this outcome as well.”
The final product was Johnson, the embattled speaker,’s third attempt to achieve one of the federal government’s basic requirements: keeping it open. The difficulties raised questions about whether Johnson will be able to keep his job, in the face of angry Republican colleagues, and work alongside Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk, who was calling the legislative plays from afar.
The House is scheduled to elect the next president on January 3, 2025, when the new Congress convenes. Republicans will have an extremely narrow majority, 220-215, leaving Johnson little room for error as he tries to win the presidential gavel.
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One House Republican, Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, criticized Republicans for deficit spending in the bill and said he was now “undecided” about GOP leadership. Others are also signaling discontent with Johnson.
However, Trump’s last-minute debt limit demand was nearly impossible, and Johnson had almost no choice but to weather that pressure. The speaker knew there would not be enough support within the slim Republican majority alone to pass any funding package because many Republican deficit hawks prefer to cut the federal government and would not allow more debt.
Instead, Republicans, who will have full control of the White House, House and Senate in the new year, with big plans for tax cuts and other priorities, are showing that they must routinely rely on Democrats for votes. necessary to keep up to date with the elections. routine government operations.
The federal debt stands at about $36 trillion, and rising inflation after the coronavirus pandemic has raised the government’s borrowing costs so much 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 raise that limit at this time because the Treasury Department can begin using what it calls “extraordinary measures” to ensure that the United States does not default on its debts. Some estimate that these accounting maneuvers could delay the default deadline until the summer of 2025. But that is what Trump wanted to avoid because an increase would be necessary while he was president.
Republican leaders said the debt ceiling would be discussed as part of the tax and border packages in the new year. Republicans reached a so-called handshake deal to raise the debt limit at the time while cutting $2.5 trillion in spending over 10 years.
It was essentially the same deal that collapsed Thursday night, minus Trump’s debt demand. But it’s much smaller than the original deal Johnson struck with Democratic and Republican leaders: a 1,500-page bill that Trump and Musk rejected, forcing him to start over. It was packed with a long list of other bills, including much-derided pay raises for lawmakers, but also other measures with broad bipartisan support that now have a tougher path to becoming law.
Trump, who has not yet taken office, is showing the power but also the limits of his influence in Congress, as he intervenes and orchestrates matters from Mar-a-Lago alongside Musk, who heads the new Department of Efficiency Governmental. .
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Mary Clare Jalonick, Darlene Superville and Bill Barrow contributed to this report.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
