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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.
Key Headlines
- Senate approves short-term government funding bill
- Senate has plan to pass funding bill before midnight deadline: Schumer
- Ahead of vote on shutdown bill, Senate approves funding for pediatric cancer research
- Jeffries calls funding bill passage 'a victory'
- Schumer confident Senate will pass government funding bill
- Johnson celebrates passage of funding bill, urges Senate to clear it swiftly
- Voting formally ends, Democrats vote yes
- What's included in the new bill
- New bill to avert shutdown released, plans for vote soon
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
Johnson: 'We will not have a government shutdown'
House Speaker Mike Johnson was confident there would be no shutdown after huddling with his conference behind closed doors for several hours.
Johnson told reporters that Republicans have reached an agreement “to move forward." Though he notably declined to divulge the particulars of the plan ahead of a potential vote on Friday afternoon.
“We have a unified Republican conference,” Johnson said.
“There is a unanimous agreement in the room that we need to move forward," he added.
Leaving the meeting, Johnson hinted that he was prepared to run the latest plan past Trump.
“I will not telegraph to you the specific details of that yet, because I've got a couple of things I got to wrap up in a few moments upstairs, but I expect that we will be proceeding forward,” Johnson said.
Nevertheless, the speaker predicted that Congress will act prior to the funding deadline tonight.
“We will not have a government shutdown, and we will meet our obligations for our farmers who need aid, for the disaster victims all over the country, and making sure that military and essential services and everyone who relies upon the federal government for a paycheck is paid over the holidays. I'll give you the more details here in just a few moments,” Johnson said.
-ABC News' Jay O'Brien, Lauren Peller and John Parkinson
House GOP weighs options for funding. Neither include Trump's debt limit demand.
According to multiple sources, Republican House leadership laid out two options at the conference meeting to fund the government.
One option is a clean continuing resolution to fund the government at current levels until March without debt limit suspension. The vote would be held under suspension of the rules, requiring a two-thirds majority.
The other choice is to hold separate votes on a clean continuing resolution to March, on additional disaster relief and on an extension of farm bill.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., declined to provide details on what the next step is to avert a government shutdown as he emerged from the meeting.
"So, we are talking through different options," Scalise said.
Asked by ABC News' Jay O'Brien if taking the debt limit out of the equation defies Trump, Scalise responded: "The debt limit is taken out because the Democrats walked away from that last night."
Sources tell ABC News Republicans also came to an "agreement" to raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion in the first reconciliation package with a $2.5 trillion cut in net mandatory spending in the reconciliation process. This was presented to members in the closed-door meeting.
-ABC News' Jay O'Brien, Lauren Peller, Isabella Murray, John Parkinson and Emily Chang