WASHINGTON − House lawmakers reached a bipartisan, last-minute agreement to keep government running while facing a midnight deadline for a partial shutdown days before the end-of-year holidays and a month before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office.
But the Senate finished voting for the day before the House vote, so it was unclear when the spending package would reach President Joe Biden’s desk.
Biden is expected to sign it if the Senate agrees. The public is unlikely to notice a brief lapse in government funding if the Senate votes Saturday because most action to implement it wouldn’t begin during a weekend.
The House voted 366 to 34 to approve the measure. The vote came after Elon Musk, a top adviser to Trump and funder of his campaign, questioned whether it was a Republican or Democratic bill. His criticism earlier this week of another version of the stopgap scuttled it.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said the compromise was reached because Republicans removed a provision Trump had sought that would have raised the amount the government can borrow until after the 2026 election.
The agreement only temporarily staves off decisions about spending priorities for the government until March. Congress has been unable to reach a consensus on any of the 12 spending bills needed to fund the government for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
The temporary reprieve will postpone decisions until Republicans reclaim control from Democrats of the White House and the Senate early next year, combined with their continued leadership of the House.
The funding dispute revealed fissures in the Republican majority that will remain with narrow majorities in the House and Senate, when newly elected members are sworn in Jan. 3. Republicans have an ambitious agenda for 2025 to cut taxes that could be stymied if they can’t agree on spending priorities.
A bipartisan compromise to temporarily extend government funding to March was scuttled after Elon Musk, a top adviser to Trump and funder of his campaign, threatened to recruit primary opponents against any Republican who supported the bill. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said generous portions of the 1,500-page bill made it look “like the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.”
Government shutdown recap: How did we get here, and what have lawmakers said?
Then Trump endorsed a funding extension that included a provision to increase the amount the government can borrow until after the 2026 election. But Democrats who opposed the proposal were joined by 38 Republicans in killing it.
Defiant party members: Which 38 Republicans voted against Trump’s plan to keep the government running?
By midday Friday, House GOP leadership had come up with plan C, after their original proposal was sunk by Trump and allies, and their second attempt to keep the lights on died Thursday at the hands of Democrats and few dozen Republicans.
Had Congress failed to find a solution in time, government agencies and services that are not “essential” would have halted, thousands of federal employees would face furloughs, among other consequences.
Tensions had flared this week on Capitol Hill as House Republicans faced tricky marching orders from their party leader, Trump, and Democrats cried foul after their colleagues discarded the original bipartisan agreement. Resolved for the time being, the conflict caps what many referred to as one of the most dysfunctional and least productive Congresses in recent memory.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House reaches bipartisan, last minute deal, but Senate must still vote
