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By Sonam Sheth
Evening Politics Editor
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What's New
The House of Representatives passed a stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown on Friday evening, hours before a midnight deadline.
The measure passed with broad bipartisan support, with a vote of 366-34, with one member voting present.
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Why It Matters
Friday's bill is essentially three separate bills tied into one; it would keep the government funded until mid-March, includes $100 billion in disaster aid, and $10 billion in aid to farmers. It would also extend the farm bill for another year.
But in order to secure the two-thirds support they needed to get the bill passed, Republicans dropped President-elect Donald Trump's demand to raise or suspend the debt ceiling.
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What To Know
House Speaker Mike Johnson landed a much-needed win with the bill's passage on Friday. The House was poised to pass an initial bipartisan proposal on Wednesday, until Trump and billionaire Elon Musk leapt into the fray and demanded Republicans not back the bill as it was written.
That sent Republicans scrambling as Johnson went back to the drawing board. He came back with an amended proposal, which included a two-year suspension of the debt ceiling.
Democrats balked at the new proposal, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries made clear that Democrats would not bail Republicans out after Trump and Musk scuttled the original agreement.
The president-elect and Musk threw their support behind the amended bill, but it failed by a vote of 174-235 on Thursday night, with one member voting present. Thirty-eight Republicans joined the majority of Democrats in voting it down, bucking Trump, Johnson and Musk.
House lawmakers regrouped afterward, and Republicans came back with Friday's proposal to keep the government open.
"There is unanimous agreement in the room that we need to move forward," Johnson told reporters earlier Friday evening after a closed-door meeting with House Republicans. "We will not have a government shutdown, and we will meet our obligations."
Jeffries also spent much of Friday meeting with Democratic lawmakers on Friday as they weighed whether or not to support the latest measure.
House Democrats were almost unanimously opposed to Thursday's bill because it suspended the debt ceiling, meaning Democrats would have less leverage next year when opposing Trump's plan to pass massive tax cuts.
Jeffries privately told his Democratic colleagues he would support Friday's measure shortly before the vote, Punchbowl News reported, citing a Democratic member.
The White House also lent its support to the measure while voting was underway, while highlighting that the initial agreement tanked because of Trump's last-minute intervention.
"Following an order by President-elect Trump, yesterday Republicans walked away from a bipartisan deal and threatened to shut down the government at the 11th hour in order to pave the way to provide tax breaks for billionaires," the White House said in an emailed statement. "This revised legislation does not do that."
"While it does not include everything we sought, it includes disaster relief that the President requested for the communities recovering from the storm, eliminates the accelerated pathway to a tax cut for billionaires, and would ensure that the government can continue to operate at full capacity," the statement continued. "President Biden supports moving this legislation forward and ensuring that the vital services the government provides for hardworking Americans – from issuing Social Security checks to processing benefits for veterans -- can continue as well as to grant assistance for communities that were impacted by devastating hurricanes."
What People Are Saying
Johnson, speaking to reporters after the bill passed: "This was a necessary step to bridge the gap to put us into that moment where we can put our fingerprints on the final decisions on spending for 2025."
Republican Representative Chip Roy of Texas opposed the bill, writing on X: "On this third 'funding' CR - progress having been made on future cuts/debt ceiling notwithstanding - I must vote no. $110bb unpaid-for, extension of food stamps with no reform, gimmicks to pay for health extenders, breaks 72 hour rule... More of the same."
Jeffries slammed Trump and Musk for torpedoing the initial agreement, telling reporters on Friday: "By trying to jam a debt ceiling suspension into the legislation at the eleventh hour was not sustainable. That effort has come out because that was all about Republicans trying to cut Social Security and Medicare while cutting taxes for the wealthy, they well-off, and the well-connected. and that is why Donald Trump and Elon Musk demanded that the debt ceiling provision be placed into the bill at the eleventh hour."
**Musk praised Johnson over the final bill while voting was underway, writing on X: "**The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances. It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces. Ball should now be in the Dem court."
What Comes Next
The funding bill will now go to the Senate for a final vote.
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