US Senate approves spending plan and sends it to Biden for signature

On deadline to avoid a government shutdown, the Senate quickly approved a bipartisan plan early Saturday that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster relief, but dismissed President-elect Donald Trump’s demands for an increase in funding. Debt ceiling for the new year.

House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted that Congress will “meet our obligations” and not allow federal operations to come to a standstill before the holiday season. However, the day’s outcome was uncertain after Trump reiterated his insistence that an increase in the debt ceiling be included in any deal. If not, let the closures “start now,” as stated in a morning publication.

The House passed Johnson’s new bill by an overwhelming majority, 366 to 34. The Senate worked into the night to pass it, 85-11, just after the deadline passed. At midnight, the White House said it had ceased preparations for the shutdown.

“This is a good result for the country,” Johnson said after the House vote, adding that he had spoken with Trump and that the president-elect “was certainly happy with this result, too.”

President Joe Biden, who has played a less public role in the process during a turbulent week, is expected to sign the law on Saturday.

“There will not be a government shutdown,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The final product was the third attempt by Johnson, the embattled House speaker, to achieve one of the federal government’s basic requirements: keeping it open. And it raised serious doubts about whether Johnson will be able to keep his job in the face of the wrath of his Republican colleagues, and work alongside Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk, who have paced the legislative moves this time.

Trump’s last-minute demand was nearly impossible to meet, and Johnson had almost no choice but to fend off his pressure to raise the government’s debt ceiling. Johnson knew there would not be enough support within the Republican majority to pass any funding package, as many Republicans prefer to cut the federal government and certainly would not allow more debt.

Instead, Republicans, who will have full control of the White House, House and Senate next year, with big plans for tax cuts and other priorities, are showing that they must routinely rely on Democrats to get things done. votes necessary to maintain routine government operations.

“So is this a Republican or Democratic bill?” Musk mocked on social media before the vote.

The drastically reduced 118-page package would fund the government at current levels through March 14 and add $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in agricultural assistance for farmers.

Trump’s demand to raise the debt ceiling, which GOP leaders told lawmakers would be debated as part of his tax and border plans in the new year, has been dropped. Republicans reached an informal agreement to raise the debt limit at the time while cutting $2.5 trillion in spending over 10 years.

It’s essentially the same deal that collapsed the night before in a spectacular setback, opposed by most Democrats and some of the most conservative Republicans, save for Trump’s debt ceiling demand.

But it is much smaller than the original bipartisan agreement Johnson reached with Democratic and Republican leaders, a 1,500-page bill that Trump and Musk rejected, forcing him to start over. It was filled with a long list of other bills, including much-criticized pay raises for lawmakers, but also other measures with broad bipartisan support that now have a tougher path to becoming law.

House Democrats greeted the latest effort with little enthusiasm after Johnson reneged on the hard-negotiated bipartisan compromise.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said it appeared that Musk, the world’s richest man, was calling the shots for Trump and Republicans.

“Who is in charge?” he asked during the debate.

However, Democrats contributed more votes than Republicans to the bill’s passage. Nearly three dozen conservative Republicans voted against it.

“House Democrats have successfully stopped extreme MAGA Republicans from shutting down the government, crashing the economy, and harming working-class Americans across the country,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said after the vote, referring to Trump’s motto “Make America Great Again.”

Trump, who has not yet taken office, is showing the power, but also the limits of his influence in Congress, as he intervenes and orchestrates matters from his Mar-a-Lago estate alongside Musk, who is leading the new Department of Government Efficiency.

The incoming Trump administration promises to cut the federal budget and lay off thousands of employees and is counting on Republicans for a big fiscal package. And Trump isn’t as scared of shutdowns as lawmakers are, having caused the longest government shutdown in history in his first term in the White House.

More important for the president-elect was his demand to get the thorny debt ceiling debate off the table before returning to the White House. The federal debt limit expires on Jan. 1, and Trump does not want the first months of his new administration to be burdened with difficult negotiations in Congress to raise the nation’s borrowing capacity. Now Johnson will be obliged to comply.

“Congress must get rid of, or extend until, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” Trump posted, increasing his demand for a further increase in the five-year debt limit. “Without this, we should never close a deal.”

Government workers had already been told to prepare for a federal shutdown that would send millions of employees and members of the military into the holiday season without paychecks.

Biden has held talks with Jeffries and Schumer, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said “Republicans blew up this deal. They did it, and they need to fix this.”

As the day wore on, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell stepped in to remind colleagues “how damaging it is to shut down the government and how foolish it is to bet that your own side won’t take the blame for it.”

At one point, Johnson asked House Republicans in a noon meeting to raise their hands as they tried to choose a path forward.

It was not just the shutdown, but the position of the speaker of the house that was at stake. The election of the president is the first vote of the new Congress, which convenes on January 3, and some Trump allies have nominated Musk for president.

Johnson said he spoke with Musk before Friday’s vote and they discussed the “extraordinary challenges of this job.”

Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channelsYouTube, WhatsApp and to newsletter. Turn on notifications and follow us on Facebook, x and instagram.