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WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Thursday appeared to have finessed a second spending agreement to avoid a looming government shutdown, just hours after the original bipartisan agreement was torpedoed by President-elect Donald Trump.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., told reporters Thursday afternoon that Republicans had reached a new agreement on government spending but provided few details about what was changed from the initial sweeping package that had included everything from government funding to changes to prescription drug plans to facilitating the relocation of an NFL football stadium.
“We have an agreement, we expect to have a vote” on Thursday, Cole said as he left the speaker’s office on Capitol Hill.
Republicans released the 116-page bill, which funds the government through March 14, just a few minutes later.
In a post on TruthSocial, Trump praised the deal, calling it a “success” and said it would suspend the debt ceiling for another two years, to Jan. 30, 2027, after the 2026 midterm elections. He urged both Republicans and Democrats to vote yes.
“Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good Deal for the American People. The newly agreed to American Relief Act of 2024 will keep the Government open, fund our Great Farmers and others, and provide relief for those severely impacted by the devastating hurricanes,” Trump wrote.
Democrats were not part of the renegotiated deal and haven’t yet signed off, however, two sources with knowledge of the negotiations told NBC News.
A Democratic leadership source said that Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has seen the deal but hasn’t signed off on it yet. A Jeffries spokesperson had no immediate comment on the purported deal. Jeffries had previously said that any debate over extending or eliminating the debt ceiling right now is “premature at best.”
House Democrats are in an ongoing meeting about the new bill.
Speaker Johnson, R-La., and House Republican leaders were struggling earlier Thursday to devise a fallback plan to keep the government open, which is slated to shut down after the calendar turns to Saturday. Billionaire Elon Musk and Trump rallied conservatives to sink the original bipartisan funding deal.
The new agreement comes less than 36 hours before a deadline to fund the government or lead to vast swaths of the federal government shuttering and the furloughing of workers.
Democratic leaders have excoriated Johnson and his team for reneging on the previous bipartisan deal that he had signed off on. Some noted that it diminishes House Republican leadership’s credibility in any future negotiations.
On Wednesday evening, Trump threw an unexpected wrench into funding negotiations when he slammed the bipartisan funding deal Johnson had negotiated. And, in a last-minute demand, he threatened to go after Republicans unless they added a provision to extend the debt limit, months ahead of a deadline to prevent an economically catastrophic default next year — a substantial ask with less than two days to go before a shutdown deadline.
On Thursday morning, Trump went even further, telling NBC News that Congress needs to abolish the debt ceiling entirely. In a phone interview, Trump noted that some Democrats have wanted to nix the debt ceiling for years and that he would “lead the charge” in that effort.
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the former Appropriations Committee chair who is now the panel’s top Democrat, was among those who slammed Johnson and Republicans for reneging on the bipartisan funding deal that had been locked in just days earlier.
She said there was a “good agreement” in place that was moving ahead, “but for President Musk.”
Asked if the tech billionaire was calling the shots for Republicans, DeLauro replied: “It’d appear to me!”
(Trump told NBC News Thursday that Musk had only put out a series of statements seeking to kill the bipartisan compromise after discussing it with the president-elect, saying the two are aligned on the issue.)
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who just won re-election in a swing district, said on MSNBC that it is “very clear, Donald Trump is in charge” and that Republicans need Democratic support for a bill.
“The reality here is very simple. We have to negotiate,” Lawler told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell before Thursday’s agreement was announced. “I will remind everybody we are in a divided government. Still, Democrats control the Senate and the White House, so there’s going to have to be a bipartisan negotiation.”
Scott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News.
Sahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.
Julie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.
Syedah Asghar is a Capitol Hill researcher for NBC News and is based in Washington, D.C.
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