WASHINGTON – Congress reached a last-minute, bipartisan deal to keep the government running afterafter a midnight deadline for a partial shutdown days before the holidays and a month before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The Senate sent the spending package to President Joe Biden’s desk at 12:38 a.m. Saturday by a vote of 85 to 11, hours after the House voted 366 to 34 to approve it. Biden is expected to sign it. The bill funds the government through March 14.
“There will be no government shutdown right before Christmas,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a social media post as the votes came in. “We will keep the government open with a bipartisan bill that funds the government, helps Americans affected by hurricanes and natural disasters, helps our farmers, and avoids harmful cuts.”
The breakthrough came despite flak from Elon Musk, a top adviser to Trump and funder of his campaign whose criticism scuttled an earlier House version of the bill.
Friday’s successful House vote came after Musk, a top adviser to Trump and funder of his campaign, questioned whether it was a Republican or Democratic bill.
More:Government shutdown live updates: House passes funding measure
“We are really grateful that tonight, in bipartisan fashion, with an overwhelming majority of votes, we passed the American Relief Act of 2025,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters. “This is a very important piece of legislation.”
Johnson said he spoke to Trump and Musk before the House vote was completed and they both understood why it had to happen in preparation for Republicans to take control of both chambers of Congress and the White House in January.
“In January we will make a sea-change in Washington,” Johnson said. “Things are going to be very different around here.”
But Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., an opponent of the legislation, said Johnson has lost his support for leaving rank-and-file lawmakers out of the negotiations.
More:Trump’s agenda in trouble? What the Republican revolt on spending bill tells us
“This whole exercise demonstrates that he has a hard time making decisions,” Massie said. “He comes up with ideas that won’t work.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said the compromise was reached because Republicans removed a provision Trump had sought that would have raised the amount the government can borrow until after the 2026 election.
The spending legislation only temporarily staves off decisions about spending priorities for the government until March. Congress has been unable to reach a consensus on any of the 12 spending bills needed to fund the government for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
The temporary reprieve will postpone decisions until Republicans reclaim control from Democrats of the White House and the Senate early next year, combined with their continued leadership of the House.
The funding dispute revealed fissures in the Republican majority that will remain with narrow majorities in the House and Senate, when newly elected members are sworn in Jan. 3. Republicans have an ambitious agenda for 2025 to cut taxes that could be stymied if they can’t agree on spending priorities.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who also opposed the bill, said it had relatively few provisions beyond funding the government. Hurricane relief and farm aid were among the extra provisions.
Government shutdown recap:How did we get here, and what have lawmakers said?
“It wasn’t what I wanted it to be,” Roy said. “But bottom line is, the government got funded, we got a debt ceiling agreement combined with cuts as least a framework and that’s a good step forward.”
The “agreement,” which was only among Republicans, and was not part of the spending bill, aims to raise the amount the country can borrow by $1.5 trillion, paired with $2.5 trillion in spending cuts. But it was unclear when lawmakers would vote on the proposal next year, which threatens to be contentious.
A bipartisan compromise to temporarily extend government funding to March was scuttled after Elon Musk, a top adviser to Trump and funder of his campaign, threatened to recruit primary opponents against any Republican who supported the bill. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said generous portions of the 1,500-page bill made it look “like the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.”
Defiant party members:Which 38 Republicans voted against Trump’s plan to keep the government running?
Then Trump endorsed a funding extension that included a provision to increase the amount the government can borrow until after the 2026 election. Trump threatened Wednesday to recruit primary opponents for any Republican who voted for a spending without an increase in the borrowing limit. But Democrats who opposed the proposal were joined by 38 Republicans in killing it.
By midday Friday, House GOP leadership had come up with plan C, after their original proposal was sunk by Trump and allies, and their second attempt to keep the lights on died Thursday at the hands of Democrats and few dozen Republicans.
Had Congress failed to find a solution in time, government agencies and services that are not “essential” would have halted, thousands of federal employees would face furloughs, among other consequences.
Tensions had flared this week on Capitol Hill as House Republicans faced tricky marching orders from their party leader, Trump, and Democrats cried foul after their colleagues discarded the original bipartisan agreement. Resolved for the time being, the conflict caps what many referred to as one of the most dysfunctional and least productive Congresses in recent memory.
