Republican House leaders appear to be searching for a backup plan after an initial bipartisan deal to avoid a partial shutdown Friday was buried in an onslaught of conservative opposition.
The legislation angered some conservatives in both the Senate and House, as did President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to co-chair his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk.
While Musk called for legislators who supported the bill to lose their seats, Trump’s presidential transition team released a joint, official statement by Vice President-elect JD Vance and Trump opposing the initial iteration of the deal.
The bill was predicted to get a vote on Wednesday afternoon. However, a planned round of votes in the late afternoon was canceled. Instead, senior GOP members are huddling in the speaker’s office to chart a new path forward less than 24 hours after the unveiling of the legislation.
GOP Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida told reporters while leaving the speaker’s office early evening, “There will be a new CR likely tomorrow. They are negotiating right now. But there will be no votes this evening.”
Republican Representative Andy Barr of Kentucky told reporters a short time later that he anticipated a “skinny” CR without agricultural subsidies or disaster aid.
It came after GOP critics of the bill spent much of the day attacking Johnson’s case handling.
The 1,547-page bill is a short-term extension of fiscal year 2024 levels of government funding to give legislators additional time to agree on funding the rest of FY 2025 by Friday’s deadline.
It is the second such extension — referred to as a continuing resolution (CR), since FY 2024 ended September 30.
In addition to funding the government through March 14, the legislation provides over $100 billion in disaster aid to assist Americans affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. It also includes an added $10 billion in economic relief for farmers, health care reform measures, and a provision to revitalize the RFK stadium in Washington, D.C., and its surrounding campus.
Ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus members said they felt blindsided by what they saw as unrelated policy riders being added to the bill in last-minute negotiations.
Numerous Republican lawmakers, granted anonymity to speak freely, said Speaker Johnson would face challenges to his bid for speakership in early January over the issue.
However, Johnson defended the deal on Wednesday morning’s “Fox & Friends.”
“When we start the new Congress in January when Republicans are in control… we’re going to be able to scale back the size and scope of government. But before we get to that point, remember that we only control one-half of one-third of the federal government. Remember, Democrats are still in charge of the Senate and the White House. So, what we’ve done is the conservative play call here,” said Johnson.
The legislation’s opponents include Elon Musk, who posted on X, “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!”
Later, he called on Republicans to leverage a partial government shutdown: “‘ Shutting down’ the government (which doesn’t actually shut down critical functions, by the way) is infinitely better than passing a horrible bill.”
Trump, Vance call for GOP to reject the deal
In the meantime, Vance and Trump called for the GOP to reject the deal and instead opt for a CR paired with an increase in America’s debt limit—suspended until January 2025.
“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want,” said the statement.
However, simply bowing to his ultra-conservative flank may not get the speaker out of the woods, with Democrats warning him not to renege on their deal.
“House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government. And hurt the working-class Americans they claim to support. You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on X.
Speaker Johnson was always likely to need Democratic help to pass a CR, given his narrow margins in the House and widespread opposition to short-term funding extensions within Republicans.
While it’s unclear if the number of Democrats willing to break ranks will offset that GOP opposition.
Leaders in the House will also have to determine whether to pass the legislation through regular order — which will include a House Rules Committee vote after a House-wide procedural vote before legislators can weigh in on the measure itself — or bypass that and rush the bill onto the floor of the House in exchange for raising the threshold for passage to two-thirds instead of a simple majority.
In the meantime, the clock is ticking until the partial government shutdown deadline on Friday.
