Friday, December 20, 2024

GOP

Government Shutdown Live Updates: House Passes Spending Bill Ahead of Deadline - The New York Times
Live

Transition Live Updates: House Approves Stopgap Funding Bill Hours Ahead of Shutdown Deadline

The new legislation would keep the government open but did not include the debt ceiling increase that President-elect Donald J. Trump had demanded. It now goes to the Senate.

ImageMike Johnson in a dark suit surrounded by members of the media.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on his way to vote Friday night.Credit...Pete Kiehart for The New York Times
Pinned

Carl HulseMaya C. Miller and

Reporting from the Capitol

Here are the latest developments.

The House approved legislation on Friday to avert a federal government shutdown that was just hours away, with lawmakers extending funding into mid-March and approving disaster relief for parts of the nation still recovering from storms.

The vote came after Republicans stripped out a provision sought by President-elect Donald J. Trump to suspend the federal debt limit and spare him the usually politically difficult task of doing so when he takes office. The debt measure incited a revolt by Republicans on Thursday and led to the defeat of Speaker Mike Johnson’s first attempt to extend government funding.

The measure that passed on Friday, by a vote of 366 to 34, must still be approved by the Senate and sent to President Biden to keep dollars flowing to federal agencies. Otherwise, funding will lapse at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. All 34 “no” votes were from Republicans; one Democrat, Jasmine Crockett of Texas, voted present.

The outlook in the Senate was unclear, though top lawmakers predicted earlier Friday that senators, with Christmas looming, were likely to accept what the House passed and avert the crisis before bringing this session of Congress to a close.

The progress in the House capped an extraordinary week of Republican chaos and dysfunction in which Mr. Johnson cut a deal with Democrats to avert a shutdown, only to see it torpedoed by Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, who demanded a different plan, which was then defeated by Republicans.

Here is what to know:

  • Republicans defy Trump: A bill packaging spending measures with a two-year suspension of the debt cap failed on the floor on Thursday evening, when 38 Republicans balked at suspending the nation’s borrowing limit as Mr. Trump demanded. The right-wing lawmakers opposed the debt increase because it had no corresponding spending cuts. House Democrats refused to back the plan because it was stripped of provisions they supported as part of a bipartisan deal they had agreed to with Mr. Johnson, and because raising the debt limit now could smooth the path for Mr. Trump and his allies to push through tax cuts and slash social safety net programs next year.

  • Speaker’s bind: Mr. Johnson abandoned the bipartisan funding deal he had reached with Democrats this week under a barrage of criticism from both Mr. Trump and the billionaire Mr. Musk, whom the president-elect has designated to lead his push to rein in government. That sent Mr. Johnson toiling to cut a deal that would not only avert a shutdown but also salvage his chances of keeping his job. Many Republicans were angry about the initial spending compromise he forged with Democrats.

  • Musk on German politics: Mr. Musk, who helped sink the bipartisan spending compromise this week by inveighing against it on social media, weighed in on German politics in the same forum on Friday. In post on X, Mr. Musk endorsed the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party ahead of federal elections in February.

A correction was made on
Dec. 20, 2024
:

An earlier version of this article misstated which Democratic House member voted present. Jasmine Crockett of Texas voted present, not Marcy Kaptur of Ohio.


When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at nytnews@nytimes.com.Learn more

Catie Edmondson

Reporting from the Capitol

Speaker Mike Johnson, talking with reporters at the Capitol, said he spoke with Trump and Elon Musk about the legislation within the last hour.

Maya C. Miller

Reporting from the Capitol

“He knew exactly what we were doing and why, and this is a good outcome for the country,” Johnson said, referring to Trump.

Catie Edmondson

Reporting from the Capitol

The bill passes 366 to 34. The only lawmakers voting to oppose this bill — all 34 of them — are Republicans. All Democrats voted for this legislation except Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas, who voted present. An earlier version of this update misstated which Democratic House member voted present. Jasmine Crockett of Texas voted present, not Marcy Kaptur of Ohio.

Video
Video player loading

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Catie Edmondson

Reporting from the Capitol

With more than 350 lawmakers now voting in favor of this stopgap bill, it is set to easily pass the House, absent a drove of members suddenly changing their votes.

Catie Edmondson

Reporting from the Capitol

In a full-circle moment, Elon Musk, who barraged the first spending deal with a torrent of criticism on X, just posted on the platform that Johnson “did a good job here, given the circumstances.”

“It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces,” Musk says.

Teddy Rosenbluth

Democrats highlight a casualty of the spending fight: funding to combat pediatric cancer.

Image
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York argued Republicans were focusing on tax cuts over cancer treatment for children.Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

When Speaker Mike Johnson walked away from a bipartisan deal to avert a government shutdown this week, Democrats cried foul, saying Republicans had put the demands of Elon Musk and President-elect Donald J. Trump over the interests of ordinary people.

Democrats singled out one particularly sympathetic cause to reinforce their argument: childhood cancer provisions that were dropped from the compromise as Republicans struggled to find a way to keep federal funding flowing.

“Republicans would rather cut taxes for billionaire donors than fund research for children with cancer,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, posted on social media on Friday.

Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, wrote, “These people want to punish these precious little kids to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest corporations in human history.”

And Senator Patty Murray, the Washington Democrat who leads the Appropriations Committee, added a jab at Mr. Musk, who helped explode the bipartisan agreement.

“We should not let an unelected billionaire rip away research for pediatric cancer so he can get a tax cut,” she wrote on Instagram.

In abandoning the original spending deal and stripping it of an array of policy changes that had been included, Republicans dropped at least four bills related to pediatric cancer research and treatments. That drew sharp criticism from even right-leaning pundits and disappointment from cancer advocates.

“What’s your problem with a bipartisan cancer research program?” asked Jessica Tarlov, a Fox News host.

Among the dropped provisions was the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, named after a 10-year-old girl who died from an inoperable brain tumor in 2013. Since 2014, it has allocated $12.6 million to the National Institutes for Health every year to study the biology of childhood cancer and structural birth defects. The spending deal would have extended funding for that research through 2031.

Republicans also scrapped a new policy that would have made it easier for low-income children on Medicaid to cross state lines for specialized cancer treatment. Currently, out-of-state providers must undergo a lengthy enrollment process — which sometimes delays critical cancer treatment — before Medicaid will agree to cover the care.

Two bills aimed at incentivizing pediatric cancer drug development also fell out of the spending measure. One would have allowed the Food and Drug Administration to fast-track consideration of drug applications for companies that successfully develop a drug for a rare pediatric disease. The other would have let drug developers get rare disease drugs approved for children — and reap the financial incentives of doing so — even if a drug targeting the same disease had already been recently approved for adults.

Mark Fleury, a policy expert from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said he was still hopeful that the provisions would be added back into the final measure, noting that the situation in Washington was still “very dynamic.”

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Maya C. Miller

Reporting from the Capitol

Democrats emerging from the closed-door meeting say they intend to vote “yes” on the bill. Jeffries told them that “on balance, it’s a win for the American people,” said Bill Foster of Illinois.

It was a compromise,” Foster added. “We definitely did not give Elon Musk and Donald Trump what they wanted, and we got most of what we wanted, what we’ve been negotiating.”

Catie Edmondson

Reporting from the Capitol

The House is voting now on the third stopgap bill House Republicans have put forward this week to avert a government shutdown. It needs the support of two-thirds of the lawmakers present and voting to pass. If it fails, we are all but certainly headed for a shutdown.

Catie Edmondson

Reporting from the Capitol

In a last-ditch pitch to lawmakers about six hours ahead of the shutdown deadline, Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, makes the case on the House floor for the legislation. “If you vote no on this bill,” Cole says, “you are effectively voting to shut down the government.”

Maya C. Miller

Reporting from the Capitol

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters that the removal of the debt ceiling provision is a step in the right direction for Democrats to potentially support the bill on the floor tonight.

“What needed to come out of the bill has come out of the bill,” Jeffries said, referring to suspension of the debt ceiling. “Now we’ve got to evaluate the four corners of what remains in the legislation.”

Image
Credit...Maansi Srivastava for The New York Times

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Kate Conger

Technology reporter

An X-supported bill to help victims of deepfake porn fell with the spending measure Musk helped kill.

Image
Elon Musk called on lawmakers to oppose a bipartisan spending deal in more than 150 posts on X.Credit...Eric Lee/The New York Times

Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, had recently been pushing for Congress to pass the Take It Down Act, an online safety measure. But this week, Mr. Musk jeopardized its passage as he railed against the passage of a bipartisan spending deal that included the act — actions that eventually led to its defeat in a House vote on Thursday night.

X registered to lobby in favor of the Take It Down Act and several other pieces of legislation related to child safety, according to a disclosure form filed in October. Take It Down — cosponsored by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota — is designed to enable victims of deepfake pornography to have the images removed from tech platforms. Linda Yaccarino, X’s chief executive, has publicly campaigned for several bills focused on online safety, including the Kids Online Safety Act, which the Senate passed earlier this year but the House declined to take up this week.

But Mr. Musk’s posting spree on X on Wednesday urging rejection of the spending deal doomed Take It Down Act — it was stricken from the budget deal that was voted down on Thursday. Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear on Friday whether the act would resurface in any last-minute Republican efforts to avert a shutdown.

Mr. Musk did not weigh in on the Take It Down Act in his posts on X, but suggested that other measures attached to the spending deal should be passed as stand-alone bills instead.

Catie Edmondson

Reporting from the Capitol

Right now Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee and a senior leader in the party, is railing against Republicans on the House floor for reneging on the deal that Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker, struck earlier with her party.

Image
Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
Catie Edmondson

Reporting from the Capitol

It seems to be an open question whether large numbers of Democrats will come to Republicans’ aid here to pass the legislation. Speaker Mike Johnson is again using a special procedure to fast-track this bill to the House floor, and it will require two-thirds of lawmakers present and voting to support the bill in order for it to pass.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Maya C. Miller

Reporting from the Capitol

Democrats are congregating beneath the Capitol for a closed-door meeting where they’ll discuss whether or not to support the stopgap bill. Arriving members brush off reporter questions by saying they haven’t had a chance to read the text yet.

Maya C. Miller

Reporting from the Capitol

Representative Marcy Kaptur, an Ohio Democrat who voted “present” on last night’s failed bill, said she would make her decision on the new bill based primarily on whether it contains enough farm assistance and funding for health programs, such as those for pediatric cancer research. “It depends on how bad it is,” Kaptur said, when asked if the elimination of those provisions would push her to vote no.

Maya C. Miller

Reporting from the Capitol

Republicans leaving a closed-door meeting of their conference this afternoon said the bill that the House plans to vote on Friday evening includes temporary funding until March 14, as well as more than $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in emergency assistance for farmers. It also would extend the expiring farm bill for a year. It is effectively the same bill that failed on Thursday night, minus a provision to raise the debt ceiling.

Ben Casselman

A shutdown’s economic toll: less spending, more uncertainty.

Image
A federal government shutdown probably wouldn’t be enough to derail the solid U.S. economy, but it could inject more uncertainty into the economic outlook.Credit...Pete Kiehart for The New York Times

A federal government shutdown probably wouldn’t be enough to derail the solid U.S. economy. But it could inject more uncertainty into an already murky economic outlook.

Funding for the federal government will lapse at the end of Friday if Congress doesn’t reach a deal to extend it. It is still possible that legislators will act in time to prevent a shutdown, or will restore funding quickly enough to avoid significant disruptions and minimize any economic impact.

But if the standoff lasts beyond the weekend, most federal offices will not open Monday, and hundreds of thousands of government employees will be told not to work. Others will be required to work without pay until the government reopens.

For those workers and their families, the consequences could be serious, especially if the impasse drags on. Federal law guarantees that government workers will eventually receive back pay, but that may not come in time for those living paycheck to paycheck. And the back-pay provisions don’t apply to consultants or contractors. During the last government shutdown — a partial lapse in funding in late 2018 and early 2019 — federal workers lined up at food pantries after going weeks without pay.

For the economy as a whole, the effects of a shutdown are likely to be more modest. Many of the most important government programs, like Social Security and Medicare, would not be affected, and government services that are deemed “essential,” such as air traffic control and aviation security, can continue at least temporarily. Federal workers who put off purchases are likely to make them once their paychecks restart.

Forecasters at Goldman Sachs estimate that a shutdown would exert a small but measurable drag on the economy, reducing quarterly economic growth by about 0.15 percentage points for every week the lapse in funding continues. Most of that toll, though not all, would reverse in the next quarter. Other forecasters have released similar estimates.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2019 that the last shutdown, which ended after 35 days, had only a modest and short-lived impact on economic output. That was only a partial shutdown, however — large parts of the government, including the Departments of Defense, Labor, and Health and Human Services, remained open.

A funding lapse now would affect a much larger part of the government, and therefore could cause more severe damage if it lasted a while. But that makes a long shutdown less likely, said Bobby Kogan, a former budget official in the Biden administration who now works at the Center for American Progress. He noted that the last shutdown had ended when it appeared that Transportation Security Administration screeners were about to stop showing up for work.

“Part of the reason these things don’t end up being catastrophic is because we stop it before it gets catastrophic,” Mr. Kogan said.

But economists warn that even if the direct effects of a shutdown are limited, the dysfunction it represents could have consequences in the long run. Government contractors may be more reluctant to hire workers and make investments if they think they can’t count on the federal government to be a reliable customer. Bond investors may demand a higher return to buy Treasury securities, in the form of higher interest rates, if they worry that political turmoil has made the U.S. government more of a credit risk.

“The natural concern is that this is just a prelude of what we’re going to get over the next four years,” said Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist for Nationwide, the insurance company. “It’s just another layer of uncertainty and maybe caution that can work against the economy.”

The economy is relatively healthy by most measures, with unemployment low, consumer spending strong and inflation much cooler than it was two years ago. That momentum means the economy can probably withstand the modest drag of a shutdown without running much risk of a recession.

But recent economic data have sent conflicting signals, with some measures suggesting that inflation could be picking back up and others that the labor market could be starting to crack.

Uncertainty about what policies the incoming administration will pursue has further clouded the economic outlook. On Wednesday, policymakers at the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point, but signaled that cuts next year were likely to be fewer and were not guaranteed.

A government shutdown would complicate the picture for the Fed, and not only by adding more uncertainty to the economic outlook. It could also imperil the data that policymakers rely on to make their decisions. Past shutdowns forced the government to delay or even cancel reports on jobs, inflation and other measures.

“If we do have a big delay in the economic data, I think it’s going to be really hard for the Fed to provide a whole lot of guidance,” said Michael Pugliese, senior economist at Wells Fargo.

The impact of such uncertainty is hard to measure, Mr. Pugliese said, but it is real.

“I don’t think that’s completely costless even if you don’t see it in the next G.D.P. report,” he said.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Catie Edmondson

Reporting from the Capitol

The House will vote after 5 p.m. on the stopgap funding bill, Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the Republican whip, just said in an alert to lawmakers.

Carl Hulse

Reporting from the Capitol

Mitch McConnell marked the end of his 18 years as Republican leader on Friday with a floor speech reminding his colleagues that they have a choice in the Senate: “Do nothing, or try to find things you can agree on and do them together.” McConnell received a standing ovation from both sides of the aisle, and noted that he planned to remain in the Senate at least two more years. “I fully intend to keep frustrating my critics in the years ahead,” he said.

Image
Credit...Pete Kiehart for The New York Times
Lazaro GamioNoah Weiland

See which government workers would be impacted if a spending bill doesn’t pass.

A government shutdown would have significant consequences for more than two million federal employees. Some would be forced to report to work and the rest would be furloughed. None would be paid during the shutdown.

More than two million federal workers would be affected by a shutdown

Agency
Total workers
Pct. on furlough
Department of Defense
804,244
55%
Department of Veterans Affairs
458,579
4%
Department of Homeland Security
264,209
11%
Department of Justice
114,521
16%
Department of the Treasury
97,620
64%
Department of Agriculture
96,931
59%
Department of Health and Human Services
90,512
45%
Department of Interior
65,397
51%
Department of Transportation
57,146
33%
Department of Commerce
52,507
84%
Department of State
31,573
67%
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
18,310
93%
Environmental Protection Agency
16,851
90%
Department of Labor
14,905
73%
Department of Energy
13,850
60%
General Services Administration
12,732
51%
Department of Housing and Urban Development
8,573
80%
Small Business Administration
8,171
20%
Securities and Exchange Commission
5,041
92%
Department of Education
4,176
90%
Smithsonian Institution
3,950
70%
Office of Personnel Management
2,869
20%
Federal Trade Commission
1,388
70%

Source: Official government agency websites

By Lazaro Gamio

Both furloughed workers and the employees who would continue working during a shutdown would receive back pay once the president signs a new spending deal into law.

Federal agencies have devised their own plans for a shutdown, including who would be furloughed. Who is furloughed and who must report to work will depend on whether their duties are necessary to protect the government’s operations.

Some of the largest government agencies, including the departments of defense and the treasury, would see more than half of their employees furloughed. The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, would each have at least 90 percent of their employees furloughed.

By contrast, less than 20 percent of employees at three large agencies, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice, would be furloughed.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Carl Hulse

Reporting from the Capitol

Other lawmakers exiting the session said they expected one vote on a government funding package, disaster relief and payments to farmers, minus a debt ceiling increase that caused Republicans to oppose a similar bill on Thursday.

Carl Hulse

Reporting from the Capitol

Speaker Mike Johnson exited a closed meeting with House Republicans and said he intended to move forward with legislation today, though he said some details remain to be worked out. “There is unanimous agreement in the room that we need to move forward,” he told reporters. “We will not have a government shutdown, and we will meet our obligations.”

Noah Weiland

Federal health authorities promote childhood vaccines in the shadow of Kennedy’s bid for health secretary.

Image
Federal officials warned of the potential for measles outbreaks if parents avoided vaccination.Credit...Lindsey Wasson/Reuters

The Health and Human Services Department began a campaign on Friday to support childhood vaccinations that federal health officials said was intended to “cut through the noise of misinformation.”

The announcement, which came as House Republicans were racing to avert a government shutdown at midnight, did not mention Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for health secretary, a longtime vaccine skeptic. But its timing, while Mr. Kennedy has been meeting with Republican lawmakers to make the case for his selection, was striking.

The campaign, called Let’s Get Real, includes stories from physicians on the importance of the shots, and infographics and videos meant to be used by health providers and parents.

“We need to stop this dangerous trend and be more vocal about protecting our children,” Kaye Hayes, a federal infectious disease official, said in a statement announcing the campaign. “Parents have heard so much misinformation. Many of them are overwhelmed.”

Mr. Kennedy has said he does not want to take away access to any vaccines, but wants greater transparency in how they’re regulated.

In the announcement Friday, health officials cited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research that showed that 3.3 percent of kindergartners had an exemption from at least one vaccine during the 2023-24 school year, the highest level the agency has ever reported.

Federal officials warned of the potential for measles outbreaks if parents avoided vaccination, and pointed to the success of the polio vaccine. The New York Times reported last week that a lawyer who worked with Mr. Kennedy to vet potential federal health appointees had petitioned the federal government to revoke its approval of the stand-alone polio vaccine in 2022 on behalf of a client.

Mr. Kennedy met on Capitol Hill this week with mostly sympathetic lawmakers. But he could soon encounter more resistance from Republicans, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a polio survivor, and Democrats wary of his record of anti-vaccine activism. Mr. Kennedy has cast doubt on the polio vaccine.

Dr. Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health and human services, said in the Friday announcement that the success of childhood vaccinations in preventing diseases like polio and Hib “means that many parents have never seen some of the diseases that vaccines prevent.”

She added: “We need to make sure conversations about vaccines are balanced and factual to ensure our children get the best protection as they grow up.”

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Tim Balk

While Republicans met to discuss options for keeping the government open, President-elect Donald J. Trump continued to flesh out his incoming administration with loyalists. Writing on Truth Social, he said he had chosen Brian Burch to be the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. Burch, a father of nine who lives outside Chicago, is a founder of CatholicVote, a conservative group that lobbies lawmakers and campaigned for Trump in seven swing states. Trump praised Burch for supporting his campaign.

Maya C. Miller

Reporting from the Capitol

Representative Anthony D’Esposito, a New York Republican who lost his re-election bid, told reporters that “simplicity is paramount in these situations” and threw his support behind a bare-bones bill to fund the government instead of the approach under consideration by his colleagues that would require three separate votes.

Maya C. Miller

Reporting from the Capitol

A no-frills stopgap bill would jettison funds for disaster relief and economic assistance for farmers, two large expenditures that have bipartisan support.

“I am fully supportive of disaster relief, I’m fully supportive of farmers,” D’Esposito said. “But time is of the essence, and right now, sometimes simplistic is the way to go.”

Maggie Haberman

Trump has used government shutdowns as leverage before.

Image
President-elect Donald J. Trump has repeatedly told allies and advisers over the last few days that he does not oppose a government shutdown.Credit...Maansi Srivastava for The New York Times

In 2018, during Donald J. Trump’s first presidency, he said he would be “proud” to shut down the government if a deal was not reached that included funding he wanted for his proposed wall along the southern U.S. border.

“I’ll be the one to shut it down,” Mr. Trump said at the time. “I will take the mantle. And I will shut it down for border security.”

The partial government shutdown that followed was the longest in U.S. history. Mr. Trump was surprised at how poorly people reacted to it, according to one official who worked in the administration said.

As a midnight deadline drew closer on Friday,the incoming president both suggested he could live with a shutdown and tried to push the blame for it on President Biden, who will be in office for another four weeks.

“President-elect Trump is doing more to find a resolution for the American people than the sitting president,” said Karoline Leavitt, Mr. Trump’s incoming White House press secretary, in a statement. “If the government shuts down, the onus is on Joe Biden, who has been hiding away since Election Day.”

Mr. Trump has pushed for shutdowns consistently over time, primarily as a leverage tool. Some advisers in his first term told him that there were ways to minimize the pain that taxpayers experience in a shutdown — a message that apparently has stuck with him.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly told allies and advisers over the last few days that he does not oppose a government shutdown, according to two people with knowledge of his comments.

In May 2023, Kevin McCarthy, then the speaker of the House, reached a budget deal with Mr. Biden that included some spending cuts and suspended the debt ceiling through this coming weekend. Mr. Trump was furious. He wanted Mr. McCarthy to let the government default on its debts instead of striking a deal that would benefit Mr. Biden, who was running for a second term at the time, two people briefed on the events said.

Mr. Trump’s advisers believe voters are more preoccupied with the holidays than they are with the ins and outs of congressional negotiations. But while Mr. Trump is technically correct that a shutdown would be Mr. Biden’s problem now, it could become a Trump problem if it drags on.

The driving conceit this time has been that Mr. Trump — and Elon Musk, an ally, funder, and multibillionaire new friend whom he has tasked with cutting government costs — believes the initial bipartisan deal was stuffed with too much bloat and too many Democratic priorities. A shutdown, from that perspective, is preferable.

That may be harder for lawmakers to swallow when Mr. Trump is arguing that he wants is to remove or raise the debt ceiling — something that was not in the initial deal — which would allow government spending to continue to increase.

“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday, hours before he called for a shutdown. “Without this, we should never make a deal. Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President.”

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Chris Cameron

Reporting on politics

With the government set to run out of money in a matter of hours after Donald Trump doomed a bipartisan funding deal, the president-elect is currently selling signed copies of his “God Bless The USA Bible” on social media. “Faith is coming back to America, and FAST!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, praising the product as “the perfect gift for this Christmas.”

Carl Hulse

Reporting from the Capitol

Republican lawmakers have begun to talk openly of a government shutdown after midnight, trying to minimize the impact by noting it would start over a weekend. “There may be a technical shutdown over the course of the evening or the weekend,” said Representative Dusty Johnson, Republican of South Dakota. “Those generally don’t mean anything. I mean, nobody gets furloughed, nothing really happens.” He did add, however, “It would be very unfortunate if we have a lengthy shutdown.”

Catie Edmondson

Reporting from the Capitol

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the majority leader, said that G.O.P. leaders had not yet decided whether they would be able to vote tonight on a proposal to avert a government shutdown. They have been floating options to lawmakers in an internal meeting, including whether they can try to fast-track legislation — something that would require picking up substantial support from Democrats.

Image
Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
Catie Edmondson

Reporting from the Capitol

All this suggests that at least a brief shutdown is very likely. House Republican leaders have yet to put forward a clear path forward, and the Senate often requires time to process legislation through specific procedural hurdles.

Catie Edmondson

Reporting from the Capitol

In an apparent response to Trump’s demand that Republicans raise the debt limit, House G.O.P. leaders, in their closed-door meeting in the Capitol basement, discussed a new possibility, according to lawmakers in the room: raising the debt ceiling next year by $1.5 trillion via their tax and budget bill, and in exchange calling for $2.5 trillion in net mandatory spending cuts.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Annie Karni

Reporting from the Capitol

Meet the 38 Republicans who defied Trump on the spending and debt deal.

Image
Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky has never bent to President-elect Donald J. Trump.Credit...Maansi Srivastava for The New York Times

The 38 House Republicans who refused to vote for the spending deal pushed by President-elect Donald J. Trump’s are largely limited-government fiscal hawks who believe they are impervious to a primary threat in their bids for re-election.

There was Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, known on Capitol Hill as Mr. No, who has never bent to Mr. Trump and so far never suffered politically for it. In 2020, when he tried to derail the passage of a coronavirus emergency relief bill, Mr. Trump called him a “third rate Grandstander” and said voters needed to “throw Massie out of Republican Party!”

Mr. Massie has won re-election twice since then.

Members like Representatives Andy Biggs of Arizona, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Tim Burchett of Tennessee have never voted for spending deals or debt ceiling increases. They also have well-known brands in their solidly Republican districts that allow them more freedom when it comes to stepping out of line from what the party’s leader demands.

And while they may not agree with Mr. Trump on government spending, many have gone out of their way to demonstrate loyalty in other ways. Some of the defectors were among those who showed up at the criminal courthouse in Manhattan last summer to show their support for Mr. Trump during his hush money trial.

Then there is Representative Chip Roy of Texas, who has been at odds with Mr. Trump since he declined to vote to overturn the 2020 election results and then endorsed Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida for president.

Mr. Roy has been publicly at war with the president-elect this week over Mr. Trump’s demand to raise the federal debt limit. He delivered a scathing lecture to his colleagues on the House floor on Thursday night, chiding them for talking tough on spending and then voting to allow more trillions to be added to the government debt.

The 38 Republicans Who Voted No

Has never voted to raise the debt limit
Won by 30+ percentage points in November
Luttrell
Texas 8th
Fulcher
Idaho 1st
Clyde
Ga. 9th
Cloud
Texas 27th
Burlison
Mo. 7th
Burchett
Tenn. 2nd
Brecheen
Okla. 2nd
Gosar
Ariz. 9th
Moore
Utah 1st
Win margin: 20-29
Van Duyne
Texas 24th
Tiffany
Wis. 7th
Self
Texas 3rd
Roy
Texas 21st
Norman
S.C. 5th
McCormick
Ga. 6th
Hunt
Texas 38th
Cammack
Fla. 3rd
Biggs
Ariz. 5th
Harris
Md. 1st
Win margin: 10-19
Spartz
Ind. 5th
Mills
Fla. 7th
Mace
S.C. 1st
Bean
Fla. 4th
Ogles
Tenn. 5th
Win margin: 0-9
Crane
Ariz. 2nd
Perry
Pa. 10th
Schweikert
Ariz. 1st
Ran uncontested
Moran
Texas 1st
Massie
Ky. 4th
Leaving the House in 2025
Rosendale
Mont. 2nd
Posey
Fla. 8th
Mooney
W.Va. 2nd
Good
Va. 5th
Curtis
Utah 3rd
Duncan
S.C. 3rd
Lamborn
Colo. 5th
Lesko
Ariz. 8th
Lopez
Colo. 4th

Notes: Chart includes votes on raising the debt ceiling since 2011. Greg Lopez of Colorado joined the House in 2024 and had never participated in a previous debt ceiling vote.

Sources: The Associated Press (2024 election results); Times analysis of data from the U.S. House of Representatives (voting history)

By K.K. Rebecca Lai, Ashley Wu and Alicia Parlapiano

The dozens of defections were the latest reminder of what has long been true: Mr. Trump can derail legislation on Capitol Hill and single-handedly kill someone’s chances of rising to a leadership position. But he has never been able to command lawmakers to pass legislation they fundamentally oppose or back a colleague with whom they have personal animosity.

Some of Thursday night’s rebels simply have nothing left to lose. Representative Bob Good of Virginia, for example, already suffered Mr. Trump’s wrath after making the politically fatal decision to endorse Mr. DeSantis in the Republican primary this year. Mr. Good lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger and is set to leave Congress in days.

Some of the 38 were wild cards. Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina almost always lands herself on a list of Republicans who vote in an unusual and attention-grabbing way. Ms. Mace has flip-flopped on everything from transgender rights to Mr. Trump himself, but positioning herself as a die-hard fiscal conservative has long been part of her political brand. Representative Eli Crane of Arizona often says he was sent to Washington simply to disrupt the status quo.

The consequences of the defections are not yet clear.

In an appearance on Glenn Beck’s program on Friday, Mr. Roy conceded that he had to “manage” his relationship with Mr. Trump after the president-elect got the impression — wrongly, he insisted — that he was trying to kill the spending and debt plan.

Someone “leaked out of the room, somewhere down to Mar-a-Lago, that somehow I was being resistant,” Mr. Roy said. He claimed he was merely negotiating “to give the president runway” during his first 100 days by demanding to know what the cuts to government spending would be.

The damage, however, was done.

“The very unpopular ‘Congressman’ from Texas, Chip Roy, is getting in the way, as usual, of having yet another Great Republican Victory — All for the sake of some cheap publicity for himself,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media before the vote on Thursday. “Republican obstructionists have to be done away with.”

Mr. Roy said he would vote his conscience and bear the consequences.

“My position is simple — I am not going to raise or suspend the debt ceiling (racking up more debt) without significant & real spending cuts attached to it,” he wrote on social media in response. “I’ve been negotiating to that end. No apologies.”

For better or for worse, Mr. Roy got a nod of approval from former Vice President Mike Pence.

“Congressman Chip Roy is one of the most principled conservatives in Washington DC and people across this country are grateful for his stand against runaway federal spending,” Mr. Pence wrote on social media. “We just can’t keep piling trillions in debt on our children and grandchildren.”

Joe Rennison

Wall Street rallies, shaking off the threat of a shutdown.

Sept. 18
Sept. 19
Sept. 20
5,650
5,700

Data delayed at least 15 minutes

Source: FactSet

Stock investors took their cue from data showing that inflation continued to slow in November, shrugging off the looming threat of a government shutdown.

The S&P 500 rose 1.1 percent on Friday, its biggest gain in over a month. The rally came after the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, which is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, showed a slower than expected gain in prices — on a monthly basis — than economists had expected.

Prices rose 0.1 percent in November from October, compared with the 0.2 percent that had been predicted. That detail helped assuage fears that had dragged stocks lower earlier in the week. On Wednesday, after the Federal Reserve reined in its forecast for interest rate cuts next year, in part because of concerns that price increases could speed up again, the S&P 500 suffered its sharpest decline in months.

Friday’s move left the appearance of calm on Wall Street, even as politicians in Washington scrambled to keep the government from partially shutting down. Investors have become used to such scrambles over government funding plans, helping inure them to the potential for economic havoc that could result.

And while a government shutdown threatens the livelihoods of federal workers and can cause transportation delays and other disruption, it is not expected to have a severe, long-term impact on the trajectory of the economy.

“Even if a shutdown occurs, we believe there is likely to be little economic or financial-market impact,” said Paul Christopher, head of global market strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. He advised investors to not react, saying that he and his team “prefer to look through any shutdown.”

Even the Russell 2000 stock index, which tracks smaller companies more exposed to the ebb and flow of the economy, rose on Friday, up roughly 1 percent.

Of course, stock investors might not be able to shrug off the shutdown — should one begin — for long. Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, noted that the, “longer a shutdown lasts, the more disruptive it is to the U.S. economy.”

That could be especially true if economic data is delayed next year due to a protracted shutdown, making the Federal Reserve’s job of steering the economy more difficult.

Nonetheless, “a short-lived shutdown affects government workers, but has limited economic impact,” he said.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

No comments:

Twitter Updates

Search This Blog

Total Pageviews