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The US government is barrelling towards a shutdown on Friday at midnight as top House Republicans try to thrash out a funding bill that can pass Congress and earn Donald Trump’s seal of approval.
Trump has preemptively tried to cast blame on US President Joe Biden and Democrats if a shutdown occurs, which would temporarily close parts of the government and suspend pay for employees.
“If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under ‘TRUMP.’,” the president-elect wrote on his social media platform. “This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!”
Trump’s looming presence, however, has been the biggest complicating factor in frantic negotiations over a last-minute deal. The Republican and his allies, including billionaire adviser Elon Musk, torpedoed an initial bipartisan compromise between Republican and Democratic leaders earlier this week.
The resulting turmoil has significantly raised the risk of a shutdown before Christmas and created an escalating political crisis for House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Trump ally, as he grapples with how to unify his fractious party and deliver on demands from the incoming president-elect.
The initial legislation would have kept the government open to March 14 and spent billions of dollars to aid farmers and communities devastated by natural disasters. The 1,500-plus page bill also had a host of other provisions, including restrictions on technology investment in China, a pay increase for members of Congress and cancer research for children.
Musk railed against the bill on his social media platform, X, saying it was filled with excessive spending. Johnson decided to not put the bill up for a vote after Trump and vice-president-elect JD Vance came out against it.
Trump and Vance then also demanded that lawmakers also agree an extension of the debt ceiling, which limits how much money the US can borrow to meet its obligations.
Johnson obliged, stripping the bill down to just over 100 pages and including a section that would raise the debt ceiling by two years. That version won Trump’s endorsement and he has vowed political consequences for any Republican who opposed it.
The House then voted resoundingly against that bill late on Thursday night, sending Republicans who control the chamber back to the drawing board.
Democrats, angry that the bipartisan deal this week was ditched, have blamed Musk for inserting himself in the process.
“At the behest of the world’s richest man who no one voted for, the US Congress has been thrown into pandemonium,” said Democrat Rosa DeLauro about Musk on Thursday.
On Friday, Trump doubled down on his push to get lawmakers to agree to suspend the debt ceiling.
“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Without this, we should never make a deal.”
If a new bill passes the House on Friday, it will need to go to the Democrat-controlled Senate for approval, and then to Biden for his signature.
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