Latest Republican plan to avert government shutdown fails with one day until agencies shutter

Updated Dec. 19 at 7:03 p.m.

Republican leaders in Congress newest effort to fund the government past Friday after President-elect Trump sank an earlier, bipartisan deal failed, putting federal agencies on a collision course with a shutdown when current funding expires Friday evening. 

The vote failed after House Republicans quickly released text of the new bill Thursday, which contained provisions significantly slimmed-down compared to the prior deal. The continuing resolution would have funded agencies through March 14, provided more than $100 billion to areas affected by recent disasters, extended the Farm Bill and certain health care policies and offered economic assistance to farmers. The measure, per Trump's request, would also have suspended the debt ceiling for two years.  

Trump has insisted that Congress address the nation’s borrowing limit—which the U.S. Treasury is set to hit at some point in the middle of 2025—as part of any bill to keep the government open, which Republicans quickly vowed to address. Absent congressional action, federal agencies will be forced to shutter first thing Saturday morning. 

Democrats rejected the measure, decrying that key provisions were chopped from the original measure, that Republicans reneged on their deal and the outsized role Elon Musk played in the negotiations. Many Republicans also voiced their intention to oppose the bill, leaving House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., without the votes to pass it. 

Johnson said ahead of the vote he hoped it would pass and did not offer a backup plan if it did not. 

After lawmakers in both chambers spent much of the day saying they did not know the details of any potential strategies to avert a shutdown, there appeared to finally be a breakthrough Thursday afternoon when lawmakers emerged from Johnson's office saying they had an agreement. Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., said the details were “forthcoming.” Asked if Trump could once again sabotage the deal, she said the president-elect had been kept apprised. Trump subsequently announced his support for the bill on social media. 

Republican lawmakers did not consult with Democrats on the bill, leaving them taken aback by the new agreement and feeling spurned by the process. The vote took place on the House floor Thursday evening under suspension of the rules, which required two-thirds of the chamber—including a significant number of Democrats—to support the bill. Instead, the bill failed to even secure a majority. Roughly three-dozen Republicans joined nearly all Democrats in voting against the measure. 

Democrats insisted throughout the day that Republicans should stick to the agreement they had struck earlier in the week to keep agencies afloat through March 14 while offering more than $100 billion in aid to disaster-ridden areas and farmers, though the House majority made clear that measure was no longer operative. Republicans, meanwhile, said their bill was the last train leaving the station.

“If Democrats don’t want a government shutdown, they’re going to play ball,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., attempted to cast blame on Democrats if a shutdown occurred over Christmas. 

“This is a clean CR with a debt ceiling increase with disaster relief,” Lawler said. “Everybody should support it.”

Luna added the measure stripped out many of the other provisions in the earlier CR package. The bill went from more than 1,500 pages to just 116. Among the provisions removed was the first pay raise for members of Congress since 2009.

Democrats said they were concerned about the shutdown threat and the impact it would have on federal workers, though their apprehension would not prevent them from voting against the Republican bill. 

"We have an agreement with the Republicans that was hammered out over a few months, and we want to stick with that agreement," said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who serves as ranking member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and who represents a large swath of federal workers. "We will not we will do everything in our power to stop another Republican shutdown like the one we saw in December of 2018 or the one we saw in the 1990s but we are not going to accept any kind of last minute political shakedown."

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said he was "absolutely" concerned about a shutdown's impact on federal employees, and that's why Democrats made the previous agreement. 

"Shutting down government is not what Democrats ever want to do," Hoyer said. 

Trump and his confidante Elon Musk threw previous plans awry on Wednesday when they denounced the bipartisan package and insisted many of its provisions not be included. Republicans have typically opposed any effort to raise the debt ceiling without accompanying spending cuts, making Trump’s request in that area a tough sell with one day before the funding deadline. 

Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., a conservative who has opposed debt ceiling increases in the past, said after exiting Johnson’s office Thursday that addressing the debt ceiling “has to be” part of a deal “because the president[-elect] has made it part of the conversation.” 

While many Republicans in both chambers expressed dismay over the 11th-hour change of plans and confusion over the next steps, some lawmakers tried to paint a rosier picture. 

“We’re making progress and things are going well,” Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said. 

The Biden administration has warned that without boosts to funding in certain areas, a CR would force several agencies to cease hiring ahead of President-elect Trump’s inauguration. The Internal Revenue Service, Federal Aviation Administration, Veterans Affairs Department, Social Security Administration and Executive Office of Immigration Review have all suggested they will implement, or continue existing, hiring freezes without additional funding attached to the stopgap bill. The bill contained a provision to allow FAA to continue hiring and operating normally, though it did not appear to address the other shortfalls.

This report has been updated throughout.