Trump Sinks Bipartisan Funding Bill Days Before Shutdown Deadline in Blow to House Speaker Johnson
President-elect Donald Trump dealt Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson a severe blow Wednesday, scuttling a bipartisan spending bill that would have kept the federal government funded into March and prevented a shutdown before the Christmas holiday.
The proposed temporary spending bill would have funded the government at current levels through March 14 – into Trump’s administration – while also providing a number of crucial add-ons, like more than $100 billion in disaster and emergency funding.
But after the bill was lambasted by Elon Musk, the billionaire chairman of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, lawmakers took up the call, forcing Johnson and House Republicans back to the drawing board. Musk, whose mandate it is to sniff out waste of federal dollars, advocated for a shutdown until Trump takes office in January.
Trump, along with Vice President JD Vance, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon rejecting the proposal and demanding the removal of provisions favorable to Democrats. He also called on lawmakers to raise the nation’s debt ceiling as a part of the sensitive temporary spending negotiations just days before a deadline to reach an agreement.
With the clock ticking down to a potential shutdown on Friday, Johnson faces limited options and, by extension, an even murkier future with leadership elections next month. His proposed bill would have provided almost $100 billion to Americans affected by a number of natural disasters in 2023 and 2024. The amount listed was in line with the nearly $100 billion request from the Biden administration in November.
An estimated $2.2 billion would have gone to the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program, $21 billion in disaster relief for farmers and $3.5 billion for state and tribal assistance grants to fix water systems damaged during the disasters.
The bill included economic aid for farmers, one of the major requirements this year. Farmers would have received $10 billion in aid as well as a one-year extension of the farm bill until September 2025. Also added was a sweeping health care package with reforms for pharmacy benefit managers. The connection between the price of the drug and the compensation PBMs receive in Medicare Part D drug plans would have been eliminated, and the payment model would have been shifted to flat flees.
The bipartisan legislation addressed elements not directly related to Congress, including full funding from the federal government to repair the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland that was toppled when it was struck by a cargo ship in March as well as a provision to shift ownership of the land around Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington to the local D.C. government – a critical step in luring Washington’s NFL franchise back to the nation’s capital from its home of almost 30 years in the Maryland suburbs. Also included was a broadly supported measure that would attempt to curb the spread of deepfake pornography in which artificial intelligence is used to manipulate images.
Negotiators from both parties looked to steer clear from some controversial items, including the Biden administration’s request for $24 billion in aid for Ukraine. Johnson rejected the idea earlier this month, saying President-elect Donald Trump’s win in the presidential race would “change the dynamic of the Russian war on Ukraine” and that lawmakers would “wait and take the new commander in chief’s direction on all that.”
Also cut were offsets in several areas, including a proposal to bolster Social Security benefits for those eligible for non-Social Security government pensions, as well as a deal on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
Johnson now faces what seems to be an impossible task of uniting the Republican caucus – a feat he has yet to achieve during his tenure as speaker – with less than 72 hours before a shutdown takes effect. While Democratic support would have been pivotal in passing the bipartisan spending bill before, it seems all but unthinkable that Johnson would defy Trump’s wishes and try to force through the bill with help from across the aisle.
As lawmakers return to the drawing board, the options are limited, with the only viable option being putting forth a clean version that would entail dropping additional provisions like disaster aid and economic help for farmers.
And after a stinging public rebuke from the unquestioned leader of the party, Johnson must also make a case for why he deserves the gavel as several in his caucus spent the day seething over his handling of the process and what ultimately went into the bill.
His future at the helm of the lower chamber is currently up in the air as his critics began floating alternatives to him during House leadership elections on Jan. 3. The current contenders are Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida.
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