Washington — The Senate early Saturday morning overwhelmingly approved a bill to avert a prolonged government shutdown, just hours after the House passed the measure with wide bipartisan support. The Senate vote came just after the Friday midnight deadline that would have marked the beginning of the shutdown.
The Senate vote shortly after 12:30 a.m. was by a margin of 85-11, with most Democrats and Republicans supporting the measure. The bill now heads to President Biden for his signature. The House passed the legislation by a vote of 366 in favor to 34 against and one member voting present, with more Democrats voting to support it than Republicans.
Early Saturday morning, the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement that it had “ceased shutdown preparations because there is a high degree of confidence that Congress will imminently pass the relevant appropriations and the President will sign the bill on Saturday.”
“Tonight the Senate delivers good news to America: There will be no government shutdown right before Christmas,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said just prior to the vote. “This is a good bill, it will keep the government open. And helps Americans affected by hurricanes and natural disasters, helps our farmers and avoids harmful cuts.”
It capped a chaotic week in Washington that saw President-elect Donald Trump torpedo a deal that House Speaker Mike Johnson reached with Democrats, a potential glimpse at the difficulties Republicans will face when they assume control of Congress and the White House next month.
The measure extends current government funding through March 14 and provides $100 billion in disaster relief funds to help with hurricane recovery and other natural disasters. It also allocates $10 billion in aid to farmers.
It does not address the debt ceiling, something Trump had demanded during the tumultuous back-and-forth over the course of the week. House Republicans instead vowed to address the issue in a future tax bill once Trump is in power.
Johnson painted the measure as a “necessary step to bridge the gap” before Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress and the White House in January.
“Trying to jam a debt ceiling suspension into the legislation at the 11th hour was not sustainable,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said ahead of the vote. Jeffries later praised the bill’s passage, saying “House Democrats have successfully stopped the billionaire boys club.”
The White House expressed support for the legislation as House members were voting on the floor.
“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,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
A tumultuous week in Washington
The bill was Johnson’s third attempt this week to extend government funding and avoid a politically perilous shutdown heading into the holidays.
An earlier deal he crafted over several weeks of talks with Democrats collapsed when Republicans, led by Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, revolted against many spending provisions that went beyond extending funding at current levels.
Trump’s opposition sank that version of the bill, which stretched to 1,547 pages. He simultaneously issued a new demand: Republicans should suspend or abolish the debt ceiling. Doing so would effectively eliminate a source of leverage for Democrats when he is in power next year.
Johnson tried to placate Trump by bringing up a slimmed-down, 116-page version of the bill on Thursday. It included disaster relief, farm aid and the debt ceiling. Trump immediately backed it, calling it a “SUCCESS” and “a very good deal.”
But many House Republicans were not as enthusiastic, and balked at suspending the debt limit after years of railing against runaway deficit spending in Washington. Thirty-eight of them bucked the incoming president and voted down the bill, sending Johnson back to the drawing board.
The speaker huddled with fellow Republicans on Friday afternoon to chart a new path forward. He settled on a plan to bring up the bill without the debt ceiling suspension that irked many conservatives and nearly all Democrats.
Republicans made quick work of passing the bill, and it sailed through with a strong majority.
Trump, for his part, publicly stayed quiet about the third version of the bill, while Musk questioned whether it was “a Republican bill or a Democrat bill.”
Johnson said after its passage that he was in constant communication with Trump throughout the process.
“He knew exactly what we were doing and why,” Johnson said. “I think he certainly is happy about this outcome as well.”
The speaker revealed he had also spoken with Musk shortly before the vote.
“We talked about the extraordinary challenges of this job,” Johnson said. “And I said, ‘Hey, do you want to be speaker of the House?’ …He said, ‘This may be the hardest job in the world.'”