WASHINGTON — House Republicans are mulling two options to avoid a government shutdown — neither of which includes a provision demanded by President-elect Donald Trump.
Both of the paths under consideration would fund the government until mid-March. One option is a bill that includes disaster aid and direct payments to farmers; the other would require separate votes on those provisions.
“We’re looking at the different options to keep the government running and to provide disaster relief and to help our farmers,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters.
Republicans are also discussing plans for next year, including an apparent goal of trimming more than $2 trillion from a category of federal spending that includes Medicare, Medicaid and a plethora of income support programs.
It’s not clear whether Trump will be on board, though House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Friday he’d been in touch with the incoming president.
“We’ve spoken with many folks from his team,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) told reporters. “We know the communications are getting back to him, and we hope that he would support whatever direction we end up going with.”
It’s not clear whether all Republicans would support either plan.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) appeared to have concerns with the options. “The president has been very vocal about what he wants, he wants a debt limit, he wants it done before he gets into office … and the first thing he’s asked us to do we are not able to deliver,” he told HuffPost. “That’s a problem.”
And if Johnson opts to move the package as one bill ― which several Republicans said they believed he would do ― he’ll need a lot of help from Democrats, since House rules will require a two-thirds majority for the bill to pass.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told reporters he would vote against a combined bill.
And as Rep. Tim Burchett (Tenn.), one of the party’s more right-wing members, exited a Republican conference meeting Friday, he said he was “leaning no.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Republicans are “looking at the different options to keep the government running.” Mariam Zuhaib via Associated Press
Earlier this week, Trump killed a previous funding bill by demanding Republicans add an increase in the nation’s borrowing limit, an issue that hadn’t even been on most lawmakers’ radars. Republicans then scrambled to put together a funding bill that met Trump’s demand only to see it go down in flames in a vote on the House floor Thursday.
Just after midnight Friday, Trump again demanded lawmakers pass a boost to the debt ceiling, posting on his social media site: “Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling. Without this, we should never make a deal.”
While the government would technically shut down after 11:59 p.m. Friday night if a funding bill isn’t passed, the effects of a shutdown would not be felt in most cases until Monday, the next business day. A prolonged shutdown would mean furloughs, missed paychecks for federal workers and members of the military, and interruptions to a variety of federal services, such as maintenance at national parks.
Igor Bobic contributed reporting.
