House Republicans say they have cobbled together a deal to avert a government shutdown a day after Donald Trump rejected a a bipartisan plan to fund the government, plunging Capitol Hill into chaos days before the Christmas holiday.
Congressman Tom Cole, chair of the House appropriations committee, told reporters that Republicans had reached an agreement, but offered no further details. Another Republican lawmaker, the Oklahoma congresswoman Stephanie Bice, leaving House speaker Mike Johnson’s office, told reporters: “There is a deal, and the details are forthcoming.”
Federal funding runs out on Friday, so members of Congress are racing against the clock before they leave Washington for the holidays to cobble together a short-term spending bill and avoid a shutdown. The plan rejected on Wednesday would have extended funding through 14 March.
In the Senate, some Republicans expressed frustration over Trump’s meddling. Leaving a lunch with Trump’s vice-president-elect, JD Vance, the Maine senator Susan Collins told Politico that there was still “no plan” to avoid a shutdown.
Iowa senator Chuck Grassley told CNN: “When you have a $35tn national debt, it’s stupid to shut the government down.”
Trump’s sudden entrance into the debate and his new demands sent Congress spiraling. It left Johnson scrambling late into the night at the Capitol. On Thursday morning, Trump told NBC News that Congress should “get rid of” the so-called debt ceiling – a limit on what the US treasury can borrow to pay its bills – a proposal that has traditionally won more support from Democrats than Republicans.
Related: US funding plan collapses as Trump makes demands days before shutdown
In an interview with NBC News, Trump said eliminating the debt ceiling was the “smartest thing it [Congress] could do – I would support that entirely”.
The idea was quickly shot down by the Democratic House leader, Hakeem Jeffries.
“GOP extremists want House Democrats to raise the debt ceiling so that House Republicans can lower the amount of your Social Security check. Hard pass,” Jeffries posted on his Bluesky account on Thursday.
The day before, Trump proposed a stopgap measure that would combine some continuation of government funds along with a much more controversial provision to raise the nation’s debt limit – something his own party routinely rejects.
“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH,” Trump and Vance said in an earlier statement. They added: “Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”
Democrats decried the GOP revolt over the funding bill, which would have also provided some $100.4bn in disaster aid to states hammered by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters.
“This reckless Republican-driven shutdown can be avoided if House Republicans will simply do what is right for the American people and stick with the bipartisan agreement that they themselves negotiated,” Jeffries told reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday. He called Trump’s debt-limit proposal “premature at best”.
But some Democrats are ready to seize the offer. “I agree with President-elect Trump that Congress should terminate the debt limit and never again govern by hostage taking,” the progressive Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren wrote on X.
Already, the massive 1,500-page bill was on the verge of collapse, as hard-right conservatives rejected the increased spending. They were egged on by Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk, who rejected the plan almost as soon as it was released.
Rank-and-file lawmakers complained about the extras, which included their first pay raises in more than a decade – a shock after one of the most unproductive, chaotic sessions in modern times.
Even the addition of much-needed disaster aid, some $100.4bn in the aftermath of hurricanes and other natural calamities that ravaged states this year, plus $10bn in economic assistance for farmers failed to win over the budget-slashing GOP. A number of Republicans had been waiting for Trump to signal whether they should vote yes or no.
“This should not pass,” Musk posted on his social media site X in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
One lawmaker said office phone lines were flooded with calls from constituents.
“My phone was ringing off the hook,” said Andy Barr, a Republican representative from Kentucky. “The people who elected us are listening to Elon Musk.”
The outcome comes as no surprise for Johnson, who, like other Republican House speakers before him, has been unable to persuade his majority to go along with the routine needs of federal government operations, which they would prefer to slash.
He met behind closed doors late into the night at the Capitol with GOP lawmakers trying to figure out a way out of the bind. Vance joined them until nearly 10pm, his young son – in pyjamas – in tow.
“We had a productive conversation,” Vance said as he and his son exited the speaker’s office, declining repeated questions about the details.
“We’re in the middle of these negotiations, but I think we’ll be able to solve some problems here.”
It all shows just how hard it will be for Republicans next year, as they seize control of the House, Senate and White House, to unify and lead the nation. And it underscores how much Johnson and the GOP leaders must depend on Trump’s blessing to see any legislative package over the finish line.
Musk, who is heading a government body that Trump claims he’ll create called the “department of government efficiency”, warned: “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!”
It’s not an idle threat coming from Musk, the world’s richest man, who helped bankroll Trump’s victory and can easily use his America Pac to make or break political careers.
Jamie Raskin, a Democratic representative of Maryland, said this is the problem with “an oligarchy – a handful of wealthy people run everything and everyone is supposed to live in fear of them”.
The bipartisan package that Trump rejected extended existing government programs and services at their current operating levels for a few more months, through 14 March 2025.
The stopgap measure is needed because Congress has failed to pass its annual appropriations bills to fund all the various agencies in the federal government, from the Pentagon to health, welfare, transportation and other routine domestic services.
But the inches-thick bill goes beyond routine funding and tacks on several other measures, including federal funding to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed when it was struck by a cargo ship. Another provision would transfer the land that is the site of the old RFK Stadium from the federal government to the District of Columbia, which could potentially lead to a new stadium for the NFL’s Washington Commanders.
The bill also would have turned off a pay-freeze provision and that could allow a maximum adjustment of 3.8%, or $6,600 in 2025, bringing lawmakers’ annual pay to $180,600, according to a Congressional Research Service report. Members of Congress last got a raise in 2009.
