Government shutdown updates: Biden signs funding bill, averting shutdown
Biden signed the stopgap measure on Saturday.
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
- Biden signs short-term government funding bill
- Senate approves short-term government funding bill
- Ahead of vote on shutdown bill, Senate approves funding for pediatric cancer research
- Jeffries calls funding bill passage 'a victory'
- Johnson celebrates passage of funding bill, urges Senate to clear it swiftly
- What's included in the new bill
Musk blames Democrats for spending bill’s failure
In a series of posts Thursday night, Elon Musk blamed Democrats for the failure of the government funding plan that he pushed along with Trump.
“Shame on @RepJeffries for rejecting a fair & simple spending bill that is desperately needed by states suffering from hurricane damage!” Musk wrote.
In another, he wrote: “Objectively, the vast majority of Republican House members voted for the spending bill, but only 2 Democrats did. Therefore, if the government shuts down, it is obviously the fault of @RepJeffries and the Democratic Party. Plain & simple.”
Musk mounted a pressure campaign on House Republicans on Wednesday to vote against the bipartisan bill that Johnson intended to bring to the floor. On Thursday, 38 Republicans – most of them fiscal conservatives – voted against a stripped-down version that cut out add-ons to the spending plan but extended a suspension of the country’s debt limit.
Senators waiting for Johnson's 'Plan C'
As the funding bill went down in the House, senators were in a holding pattern with the clock ticking down with little time to avert a shutdown.
Most Senate Republicans, many of whom initially supported the original bipartisan deal that Trump shot down, say they're now waiting to see what Speaker Mike Johnson, in concert with Vice President-elect JD Vance and other House leaders will come up with to salvage this situation.
"I'm waiting for Speaker Johnson's Plan C," Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, told reporters as it appeared that a second government funding proposal in so many days would fail to make it to the Senate.
But what that Plan C is, no one seems to know. The Senate remains crouched in a wait-and-see posture,
Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee, said she could envision a totally clean, three-week, short-term funding bill as a possible stopgap to buy lawmakers a bit more time to address Trump's 11th-hour demand that the debt limit be addressed. But she doesn't like the concept.
"It's a scenario that I can imagine but I don't imagine that it is the preferred way to proceed," Collins said. "I don't know what the plan is now."
-ABC News' Allison Pecorin
House Republican defends his vote against funding bill
House Republicans who defied Trump and Johnson defended their decision to vote against the temporary government funding measure. Some even appeared to accept a looming shutdown.
"I just voted my conscience," Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee said when asked why he voted against Trump's demands. "I have a hard time voting for a bill over a trillion dollars that I haven't even been able to read yet."
Burchett posted "Shut it down" on X and told reporters he'd be open to a shutdown "if that's what it takes to bring us to the table."
"I just, I hurt for people that this is going to hurt but, but I tell you what, collapsing our government under our lack of fiscal restraint and acting like a bunch of spoiled kids is not doing our people any service, and we can do a whole heck of a lot better," Burchett added.
-ABC News’ Jay O’Brien
Johnson says GOP will 'regroup' and come up with another plan
Speaker Mike Johnson huddled with fellow Republicans for nearly an hour inside the House chamber after the failed vote before emerging and telling reporters that Republicans would "regroup" and "come up with another solution."
There are no more votes expected in the House Thursday night, Majority Leader Steve Scalise announced.
"The only difference on this legislation was that we would push the debt ceiling to January of 2027," Johnson said. "I want you all to remember that it was just last spring that the same Democrats berated Republicans and said that it was irresponsible to hold the debt limit, the debt ceiling, hostage. What changed?"
Johnson expressed dismay – calling it "very disappointing" that Democrats opposed the vote – though he did not address the 38 Republicans who also voted against it.
"It is, I think, really irresponsible for us to risk a shutdown over these issues on things that they have already agreed upon," Johnson said. "I think you need to be asking them the questions about that. We will regroup and we will come up with another solution. So stay tuned."
-ABC News' John Parkinson, Benjamin Siegel, Lauren Peller, Jay O'Brien and Emily Chang