APPLENEWS - STORY ADD

Government shutdown live updates: Senate approves short-term government funding bill

The deal does not include a provision to raise the debt limit.

With a government shutdown narrowly avoided late Friday into Saturday morning, the House and Senate sent a funding bill to President Joe Biden's desk.

An initial bipartisan deal was tanked earlier this week by President-elect Donald Trump and his ally, Elon Musk. Then on Thursday night, the House failed to pass a revamped plan that included Trump's explosive demand that the debt limit be extended.

Under the proposal, the 118-page bill contains most of the provisions that were put in place in the bipartisan bill that was agreed to on Wednesday. The bill includes $100 billion for disaster aid, $30 billion for farmers and a one-year extension of the farm bill, provisions that were under heavy debate prior to this week's votes.


0

House Appropriations Dem raises concerns about Musk's China connections

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, sent a letter to congressional leaders questioning whether Elon Musk helped tank the first bipartisan government funding bill due to language it included about restricting U.S. investments in China.

"It is particularly disturbing that Musk may have sought to upend this critical negotiated agreement to remove a bipartisan provision regulating U.S. investments in China in order to protect his wallet and the Chinese Communist Party at the expense of American workers, innovators, and businesses," DeLauro wrote in the letter Friday.

DeLauro also explained how an outbound investment provision would have kept new technologies in the United States and prevented wealthy investors from offshoring production and U.S. intellectual property to China.

Nearly a quarter of Tesla’s global revenue in 2023 drew from sales of Chinese-made vehicles from the Shanghai factory, she said.

"I urge congressional leadership to return to the deal and include this critical provision that ensures U.S. capabilities and capital do not fuel that of the Chinese Community Party," she said.


What's included in the new bill

The new legislation is a short-term extension that funds government through March 14, 2025.

It does not address the debt limit in the legislative text, which was a key demand from President-elect Donald Trump.

It also includes $100 billion for disaster aid; $30 billion for farmers; and a one-year extension of the farm bill.

-ABC News' John Parkinson and Lauren Peller


New bill to avert shutdown released, plans for vote soon

A new, 118-page bill has been released to fund the government and avert a shutdown after a day of closed-door talks and negotiations among House Republicans.

There are plans to begin debate on the text soon and vote within the next hour.

The bill is being brought to the floor under suspension of the rules and will require a two-thirds majority for passage.


House GOP comes to 'agreement' on $2.5 trillion cut in mandatory spending, sources say

The funding options Republicans are mulling over to avoid a government shutdown exclude Trump's demand to extend or eliminate the debt ceiling.

But sources told ABC News that Republicans came to an “agreement” on Friday to raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion in the first reconciliation package of the next Congress, with a $2.5 trillion cut in net mandatory spending in the process.

This was presented to members in a closed-door meeting to discuss spending ahead of Friday night's shutdown deadline.

Mandatory spending includes highly popular entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare -- which Trump vowed on the campaign trail not to touch.

-ABC News' Jay O'Brien, Lauren Peller, Isabella Murray, John Parkinson and Emily Chang