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Lisa Desjardins Lisa Desjardins
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Days of chaos and uncertainty on Capitol Hill appear to be winding down. A bill backed by President-elect Trump to keep the government open was rejected by the House Thursday night. But on Friday, an apparent breakthrough was announced by Speaker Mike Johnson. Lisa Desjardins is tracking it all on Capitol Hill.
Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
Geoff Bennett:
Welcome to the “News Hour.”
Days of chaos and uncertainty on Capitol Hill appear to be winding down. A bill backed by president-elect Donald Trump to keep the government open was rejected by the House last night, but this afternoon a breakthrough on a very similar agreement was announced by House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA):
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 for making sure that military and essential services and everyone who relies upon the federal government for a paycheck is paid over the holidays.
Geoff Bennett:
And moments ago, the House passed the bill with bipartisan support. It now heads to the Senate with just hours until the midnight deadline.
Lisa Desjardins has been tracking it all on Capitol Hill.
So, Lisa, where do things stand right now?
Lisa Desjardins:
Right. Let’s take a quick look at the House floor. That vote just completed. This could very well be the last House vote of this Congress.
I want to tell you the vote total, 366 votes for this spending bill that would kick things down the road. I will talk about the details in a second. All of the no votes, 34 of them, were Republicans. So Democrats really helped get this across the finish line here in the House.
So what’s in this exactly? Let’s take a look. First of all, this bill would extend the funding of government funding until about mid-March. It has $100 billion about that for disaster aid. It has $10 billion for farmers. There is not an increase in the debt ceiling.
You might be wondering, Lisa, doesn’t that look just like a graphic you used the other day? Why, yes, it does. This bill is incredibly similar to a proposal that failed earlier, except for the debt ceiling has been removed.
Now, remember, this has been a problem for Republicans up and down. Talking to them this morning, coming out of their caucus meeting, it was clear they were very eager to be unified and to be positive.
Geoff Bennett:
And what did you hear from Democrats in terms of how they were able to get to yes?
Lisa Desjardins:
Right.
Well, I want to talk about the Democrats say that they want to make sure that government doesn’t get shut down. I think part of this was, coming out of that Republican meeting, I mean, Republicans were trying to be unified and to be positive and to get Democrats on board.
Let’s listen to what they said.
Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA):
I think we came together. I think Speaker Johnson did a great job come the end of the day. I think there’s very good communication happening with the White House, and which is crucial.
Lisa Desjardins:
Now, what’s notable here, Geoff, is when they say the White House, House Republicans are talking about president-elect Trump.
So, throughout all of this, it was as if Trump was already president. But I want to note, in the end, he did not get what he wanted.
Here’s what Trump posted on social media just in the last day about what he wanted. He wrote on social media — and I want to show you exactly what he wrote. Here it is. He wrote: “Congress must get rid of the ridiculous debt ceiling. Without this, the Republicans should never make a deal.”
Well, in the end, they did make a deal. Now, part of this deal is a handshake agreement between House Republicans and Trump to increase the debt ceiling next year by $1.5 trillion, but also have some cuts that would go along with it.
Geoff Bennett:
So what does all what does all of this mean for the House speaker, Mike Johnson, his leadership moving forward?
Lisa Desjardins:
Yes, we’re waiting to see what the Senate does tonight. I want to update folks on the shutdown itself, because that is coming at midnight.
The Senate could move quickly. It is possible the Senate could pass this deal by midnight or shortly after. So it looks like, if we have a shutdown, it could be a technically short one. That’s if the full Senate goes along, so we need to watch that carefully.
But Mike Johnson, absolutely, he is not out of hot water yet. At least one of his Republican members today, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, told me he is a hard no on Johnson continuing to be speaker. Let’s listen to what he said.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY):
You can change the name over the speaker’s office, but until you change the way this place works, you’re not really going to get different results. I have a different operating theory on this speaker’s vote, which is Mike Johnson is not qualified to be speaker.
Lisa Desjardins:
Now, with the margin that Johnson will have in the next session, he really cannot lose any more members and keep the speakership.
So, over the course of this recess, there will be an important moment for the speaker. I did confirm that in one of the meetings in the past day with his number two, Steve Scalise, next to him, Johnson half-joked, half didn’t joke, if anyone else can get 218 votes, meaning a majority, God bless them.
Steve Scalise is someone who has eyed the speakership before. He’s not the only one, but there will be a real moment on January 3, when the next Congress begins, a test for him.
Geoff Bennett:
So, Lisa, help us understand. Despite the chaos we have seen over the last few days, it appears Congress has voted and approved — at least the House so far has voted and approved a spending bill that for the most part mirrored what they started with, minus this effort to raise the debt ceiling is that right?
Lisa Desjardins:
That’s exactly correct.
And I’m glad you’re pointing this out. Two things here. First of all, the House knew this was coming since September. All of Congress knew this was coming since September. And so did president-elect Trump. Now, what happened here is, there was a very large bill that Speaker Johnson negotiated with Democrats that he presented to his chairmen, but did not get them to weigh in on.
That bill had essentially these items in it, plus more policy, a little bit, a bunch more spending in it and some health care policy. Then president-elect Trump and Elon Musk weighed in. They wanted the debt ceiling. So, speaker — Trump, Speaker Johnson added that. That didn’t work.
Now that’s been taken out. Essentially, we have gone through all of this as a sort of learning curve for both Speaker Johnson and president-elect Trump as to how the House can work and also how it doesn’t work.
One other thing I want to hit on really quickly in the end here is about the debt itself. This was a pervasive and important substantive issue to many of the Republicans who were negotiating here with their own party. And looking at this debt deal, I want to describe what their handshake deal is with president-elect Trump.
They made a deal to increase the debt ceiling, or they said they would try, by $1.5 trillion in the spring or in January or so. And in exchange, they want to find $2.5 trillion in mandatory spending cuts. That’s a level we have never seen before. That may not be easy to do. And, of course, they would need agreement from the Senate as well. But this is the deal they have with Trump.
Now, a reminder to folks. Currently, the U.S. national debt stands at $36 trillion. And that level is going up and up. The interest on the debt is nearing a trillion dollars a year. So that’s why this is a concern. It is a substantive issue for many of these Republicans. And that’s not going to go away, nor will the complexity of dealing with it in the next Congress. It may only get harder.
Geoff Bennett:
Lisa Desjardins, our deep thanks to you, as always.
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Lisa Desjardins Lisa Desjardins
Lisa Desjardins is a correspondent for PBS News Hour, where she covers news from the U.S. Capitol while also traveling across the country to report on how decisions in Washington affect people where they live and work.
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