America avoids government shutdown

The US Congress averted a government shutdown after weeks of tense negotiations that went down to the wire.

The US Congress averted a Christmastime government shutdown after weeks of tense negotiations that went down to the wire, passing a bill to fund federal agencies through mid-March.

With the midnight deadline already expired by minutes, senators dropped normal procedure to fast-track the package to a vote, halting government shutdown preparations and saving Christmas for more than 800,000 workers at risk of being sent home without pay.

“It’s good news that the bipartisan approach in the end prevailed... It’s a good outcome for America and the American people,” Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.

The Democrats run the Senate, so there was never much doubt that the funding package would get a rubber stamp after the party was crucial in helping the Republican majority in the House pass the bill earlier in the day.

But with senators often dragging their feet over complex legislation, there were fears that the funding fight might spill into next week.

That would have meant non-essential operations winding up, with up to 875,000 workers furloughed and as many as 1.4 million more required to work without pay.

Congress’s setting of government budgets is always a fraught task, with both chambers closely divided between Republicans and Democrats.

President-elect Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, his incoming “efficiency czar,” created much of the drama this time around by pressuring Republicans in an 11th hour intervention to renege on a funding bill they had painstakingly agreed with Democrats.

Elon Musk was a familiar feature on the campaign trail of former US President and Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

Senior Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson praised the bipartisan vote on X.

“Today, Democrats stood firm in our commitment to collaboration, not division,” he wrote. “The American people deserve a government that works for them.”

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks to reporters outside of the House Chambers in the US Capitol on December 19. Picture: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/AFP

Lawmakers funded the government until March 14 in a package that includes $110 billion in disaster aid and financial relief for farmers.

It is essentially the same as a bill that failed miserably in a vote Friday -- except without a two-year suspension of the country’s self-imposed borrowing limit demanded by Trump.

The influence of Musk, the world’s richest man, over the Republicans -- and his apparent sway with Trump -- has become a focus for Democratic attack, with questions raised over how an unelected citizen can wield so much power.

There is growing anger even among Republicans over Musk’s interference after he trashed the original funding agreement in a blizzard of posts -- many of them wildly inaccurate -- on his social media platform X.

“Last time I checked, Elon Musk doesn’t have a vote in Congress,” Georgia House Republican Rich McCormick told CNN.

“Now, he has influence, and he’ll put pressure on us to do whatever he thinks the right thing is for him. But I have 760,000 people that voted for me to do the right thing for them.” Trump had been clear that he was willing to see a shutdown if he did not get his way, and the passage of funding legislation without his priorities included demonstrated that even his great influence over Republicans in Congress has limits.

Ever seen a bigger piece of pork? pic.twitter.com/ZesFCNSNKp

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024

TRUMP RESORTS TO THREATS

After the 1547-page bill was scrapped two days before the deadline under pressure from Mr Trump and Mr Musk, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson then produced a 116-page version that stripped out a slew of other priorities, ranging from funding for cancer research to new laws forcing transparency on hotel fees.

An emergency $US5.7bn injection into America’s Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarine production line survived the cut, in a boost for the AUKUS pact amid fears that construction delays could affect Australia’s plan to buy at least three of the vessels in the 2030s.

This led Mr Trump to claim victory with the new bill, which also featured a two-year extension on America’s controversial debt ceiling, allowing him more freedom to pursue his big-spending initiatives once he is inaugurated next month.

He urged Congress to immediately support it, promising skeptical Republicans that he would cut hundreds of billions of dollars during budget processes next year.

But several rebels vowed to block it in the House, where the party has a razor-thin majority, while the Democrats refused to offer their support after the earlier agreement was killed.

“I’m not simply a no, I’m a hell no,” Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries told his colleagues, adding that the proposal was “not serious” and “laughable”.

Mr Biden’s spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre accused Republicans of “doing the bidding of their billionaire benefactors at the expense of hard-working Americans”.

She called on Mr Johnson to reinstate the agreement they had negotiated – a non-starter for the Speaker after Mr Trump had suggested he could be rolled in a leadership coup next month if he continued down that path.

The President-elect said Mr Johnson would “easily remain speaker” if he “acts decisively and tough” and eliminates “all of the traps being set by Democrats” in the spending package.

Asked if he still had confidence in him, Mr Trump said: “We’ll see.”

TRUMP, MUSK TORPEDO DEAL TO PREVENT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

A sweeping deal to prevent the US government shutting down on the eve of Christmas has been torpedoed by Donald Trump and his allies, with an emergency $US5.7bn injection into America’s struggling submarine production line a potential casualty of the chaos.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson had negotiated an agreement to continue funding government services until March 14, only for the President-elect and the world’s richest man Elon Musk to pour fuel on an internal rebellion two days before the December 20 deadline.

It could also spark a challenge against Mr Johnson, who is second in line to the presidency.

The 1547-page bill was designed to fund the government for three months, along with other initiatives including $US100bn in disaster relief after several deadly hurricanes, $US30bn in aid for farmers and the first pay rise for members of Congress in 15 years.

It also featured a boost for building the Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarine, in a move designed to accelerate production amid fears the current delays could impact the AUKUS plan for Australia to buy at least three of the vessels from the US in the 2030s.

But Mr Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy – who will lead Mr Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut spending – blasted the bill.

In a barrage of posts on his social media platform X, Mr Musk said it would be “infinitely better” for the government to shut down than for Congress to pass the bill, which he lashed as an “insane crime” and a “steal of your tax dollars”.

“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out,” Mr Trump’s biggest donor said before adding: “They should know that I mean what I say.”

Mr Ramaswamy said such “debt-fuelled spending sprees” were “like showering cocaine on an addict: it’s not compassion, it’s cruelty”.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, President-elect Donald Trump, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Vice President-elect JD Vance at the Army-Navy football game last weekend. Picture: Kevin Dietsch (Getty Images/AFP)

Mr Johnson, who is second in line to the presidency, earlier claimed he explained the bill to the DOGE leaders and they told him they understood he was “in an impossible position”.

Mr Trump and Vice-President-elect JD Vance then intervened by calling for Republicans to cut out initiatives pushed by the Democrats, saying they should otherwise “call their bluff” and force a government shutdown, while also demanding the country’s debt limit be lifted.

“Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” they said in a statement.

Dozens of Republicans were already set to vote against the legislation in the House of Representatives – including Missouri congressman Eric Burlison who said it was “a total dumpster fire” – leaving Mr Johnson to rely on Democrats for it to pass.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said: “House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government … You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”

Tennessee’s Andy Ogles said the backlash could also set up a challenge to Mr Johnson’s leadership early next month, with Kentucky’s Thomas Massie vowing to vote against him.

The Republican Party’s five-seat majority in the new 435-seat Congress – the smallest margin in modern times – will be reduced even further as three members resign to join the Trump administration, leaving Mr Johnson exposed to an internal rebellion.

He only claimed the top job last year after a small band of Republicans rolled Kevin McCarthy in the first successful coup against the House Speaker in history. Several other candidates tried and failed to claim the speakership before it fell to Mr Johnson.

Originally published as America avoids government shutdown