Senate eyes late-night vote after House approves bill to prevent government shutdown

“I have very good news for my colleagues and for the country,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in announcing a time agreement for the vote.

And while the bill won’t get to President Joe Biden to be signed into law before funding lapses, don’t expect to see an impact on government operations.

There will not be agency furloughs, and most federal workers are already off the clock over the weekend anyhow.

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a budget watchdog, 10 funding gaps of three days or fewer have occurred since 1981. Most took place over a weekend, when government operations were only minimally affected.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says Senate Republicans and Democrats have reached an agreement that will allow them to take a vote late Friday on the government funding package.

Schumer said on the Senate floor that the time agreement would allow passage “before the midnight deadline.”

There will be a series of votes ahead of final passage, but support for the legislation is clear in the Senate.

In a late-night maneuver, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill that authorizes research on pediatric cancer after a similar proposal was cut when House Republicans abandoned the first funding deal this week.

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, pushed a bill to final passage through unanimous consent — a rarely successful procedure that allowed quick approval because no senator objected. It extends for five years a program at the National Institutes of Health to research pediatric cancer and other diseases.

The government funding legislation that passed the House earlier Friday was a slimmed-down package from a deal that congressional leaders initially reached. Some Republicans, along with Elon Musk, celebrated that as a victory, but Democrats singled out the pediatric cancer research funding as an example of the things they were cutting.

The cancer research bill that gained final approval authorizes the program for a shorter period than congressional proponents had hoped, however, and other health research from the first funding proposal was still abandoned.

The Senate is moving to a final vote on a proposal to boost Social Security payments for millions of people, potentially pushing a longtime priority for former public employees through Congress in one of its last acts for the year.

The bipartisan bill would eliminate longtime reductions to Social Security benefits for nearly 3 million people who receive pensions because they worked in federal, state and local government, or public service jobs like teachers, firefighters and police officers. Advocates say the Social Security Fairness Act rights a decades-old disparity, though it would also further strain Social Security Trust Funds.

The legislation has been decades in the making, but the push to pass it came together in the final weeks that lawmakers were in Washington before Congress resets next year. All Senate Democrats except one, as well as 23 Republicans, supported the effort to bring it to a final vote.

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President Joe Biden secured the 235th judicial confirmation of his presidency, an accomplishment that exceeds his predecessor’s total by one after Democrats put extra emphasis on the federal courts following Donald Trump’s far-reaching first term, when he filled three seats on the Supreme Court.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., teed up votes on two California district judges, and they were likely to be the last judicial confirmations this year before Congress adjourns and makes way for a new, Republican-led Senate.

The confirmation of Serena Raquel Murillo to be a district judge for the Central District of California broke Trump’s mark. Come next year, Republicans will look to boost Trump’s already considerable influence on the makeup of the federal judiciary in his second term.

▶ Read more about the judges’ confirmation

Johnny Zuagar says he’s tried to hide his worries about a potential government shutdown from his three boys as he weighs how much to spend on Christmas presents.

“I’ve got to keep a poker face,” Zuagar, a statistician at the U.S. Census Bureau, said when thinking about his boys, ages 14, 12 and 6. “You’re just trying to take that worry off of your family.”

Like thousands of federal workers, Zuagar is navigating the holidays with the spirit of the season overtaken by an air of gloom and uncertainty.

The turbulent efforts in Congress to reach an agreement on funding the federal government have cast a cloud over the holidays for many federal workers facing possible furloughs in the days before Christmas. The House on Friday passed a three-month government spending bill just hours before a government shutdown, but its fate in the Senate was uncertain as the deadline loomed.

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Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said he spoke with both President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk around the time of the vote on the government funding package.

Trump understood “exactly what we were doing, and why,” Johnson said. “I think he was certainly happy about the outcome, as well.”

As for Musk, who has been suggested by some as a replacement as speaker, Johnson said they talked about “the extraordinary challenges of the job.”

“I said, hey, you want to be House speaker? I don’t know,” Johnson said.

Musk told him, “This may be the hardest job in the world,” Johnson said.

Hakeem Jeffries, whose support would make or break Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan, called the House’s passage of the government funding bill “a victory for the American people.”

House Democrats helped squash Trump’s insistence on a debt ceiling increase by voting against the earlier bill. But on Friday they put up more votes than Republicans to push the final package to passage.

“The House Democrats have successfully stopped extreme MAGA Republicans from shutting down the government, crashing the economy and hurting the working class Americans all across the nation,” Jeffries said.

After passing in the House, legislation to avoid a government shutdown is now heading across the Capitol where senators are hoping to act before the midnight deadline.

With only hours to go, a process that normally takes days will have a much faster timeline. First, House staff will physically walk the bill over. Then Senate leadership — still Democrats, until Jan. 3 — will have to negotiate with Republicans to speed things up to get it passed in time.

While it may take a few hours to figure out, senators are less likely to object to a quick vote as most of them are eyeing flights out of Washington for the holidays.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he is confident the Senate will pass it and hopefully “as soon as possible.”

It would then go President Joe Biden for his signature.

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Speaker Mike Johnson celebrated the bipartisan passage of the government funding proposal, calling it “America First legislation” in a nod to Trump’s influence over the process.

The Louisiana Republican seemed triumphant over the bill’s 11th-hour passage despite a series of major and embarrassing setbacks for him and his leadership team as Trump and billionaire Elon Musk spent the week heavily influencing the often complicated process of funding the government.

“Things are going to be very different around here,” Johnson said of the next Congress. “This was a necessary step to bridge the gap to put us into that moment where we can put our fingerprints on the final decisions on spending for 2025.”

There was whooping and clapping on the floor as Rep. Barbara Lee of California cast her last vote after 26 years in the House of Representatives.

The president-elect’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the result of the House vote.

After spending the last week in limbo, waiting for the lower chamber to send them legislation to fund the government, a few senators wandered from the other side of the Capitol building to watch the proposal finally pass.

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana were among them.

• Yea -- 366
• Nay -- 34
• Present -- 1
• Not voting -- 29

Most Democrats have yet to make their way to the floor. The deal needs a two-thirds majority of members present to vote ‘yea’ in order for it to pass.

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President-elect Donald Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk played a key role this week in killing a bipartisan funding proposal that would have prevented a government shutdown, railing against the plan in more than 100 X posts that included multiple false claims.

Not only did the owner of the social platform X, an unelected figure, use his outsize influence on the platform to help sway Congress, he did so without regard for the facts and gave a preview of the role he could play over the next four years.

“Trump has got himself a handful with Musk,” said John Mark Hansen, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. “Trump’s done this kind of thing before, blowing up a bill at the last minute. This time, though, it looks like he was afraid of Musk upstaging him. Now there’s a new social media bully in town, pushing the champion social media bully around.”

▶ Read more about Musk, the spending bill and misinformation on X

House Speaker Mike Johnson has set a vote for Friday evening on a new plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, but punted President-elect Donald Trump demands for a debt limit increase into the new year.

The outcome is uncertain. Johnson declined to disclose the new idea under consideration, but lawmakers said it would fund the government at current levels through March and adds $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in agricultural assistance to farmers.

The vote comes ahead of a potential government shutdown at midnight.

“Depending on if the House can execute, I think we could probably tee everything out for later today,” said Sen. John Thune, who’ll take over as Senate majority leader in January.

“I think at this point, my view is we should accept whatever the House can pass,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.

“And given the time of year and proximity to Christmas, I don’t think people want to hang around here any longer than they have to. And we’re going to do this all over again in three months,” Cornyn continued.

“Right now it looks like we’ll probably get out by tomorrow,” said Sen. Thom Thillis of North Carolina. But he added that senators were mostly waiting for the House to order itself.

“The work’s in the House. We’re ready to go, we just need something to react to,” Tillis said.

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In his last floor speech Friday as the Senate’s Republican leader, McConnell said he’ll use his remaining time in the Senate to restore “American leadership and American strength,” pushing back on a growing number in his party, including President-elect Donald Trump, who have embraced U.S. isolationism.

He also warned that Republicans could “pay a political price” if they don’t pass legislation keeping the government open by midnight Friday. The Kentucky Republican said he’s has reminded his colleagues “how harmful it is to shut the government down and how foolish it is to bet your own side won’t take the blame for it.”

“As a bargaining chip, you pay a political price,” McConnell said.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the current No. 2 Senate Republican, will take over for McConnell in January when he steps down and as Republicans take the majority. McConnell will stay in the Senate at least until his term expires in two years.

There’s been plenty of criticism leveled at House Speaker Mike Johnson this week as Congress struggles to avert a government shutdown, and at least one Republican lawmaker says he won’t vote for Johnson to remain as speaker next year.

Rep. Thomas Massie, a longtime critic of Johnson, told reporters his determination to oppose Johnson has only been cemented by the speaker’s latest decision to depend on Democrats to pass a government funding bill. Republicans will have a thin majority next year, meaning Johnson can only lose a few votes in the speaker election on Jan. 3.

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“I’m not going to vote for him for speaker,” said Massie. “This whole exercise demonstrates that he has a hard time making decisions, he comes up with ideas that don’t work and then we just kind of wander around trying to find a path forward until he figures out what” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will accept.

It’s also not clear whether — and how strongly — President-elect Donald Trump will back Johnson. The incoming president has so far been supportive of the speaker, but said this week he needed to show he could drive a tough deal. Johnson ultimately failed to include Trump’s demand to lift the nation’s debt ceiling in the legislation.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson says Republicans had reached a consensus on a deal to fund the government but provided no details on its contours.

“We have a unified Republican Conference. There is a unanimous agreement in the room that we need to move forward,” Johnson told reporters as he exited a House GOP conference meeting.

“I will not telegraph to you the specific details of that yet, because I’ve got a couple of things I got to wrap up in a few moments upstairs, but I expect that we will be proceeding forward,” he said.

“We will not have a government shutdown,” Johnson declared.

The speaker added that lawmakers “will meet our obligations for our farmers who aid for the disaster victims all over the country, and for making sure that military and essential services and everyone who relies upon the federal government for a paycheck is paid over the holidays. I’ll give you the more details here in just a few moments.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters Republicans are still debating the contours of a new budget deal but “ultimately we will bring something to the floor, either through a suspension or a rule, and we’re making that decision.”

Scalise noted that they were examining the role of the debt ceiling in a potential deal but didn’t elaborate further.

When asked whether Trump was briefed on the plan, Scalise replied: “The president’s very interested in how his administration will start in January. So we want to be on a footing for success, so that we can move that agenda through. We have a very bold agenda that starts in January.”

House Republicans are huddled in the Capitol basement as leadership tries to find a path forward that would prevent an extended government shutdown.

So far, Republicans who were in the meeting have said they’re only discussing options on how to advance a stopgap government funding bill, as well as disaster aid and financial help for farmers.

“They haven’t made any decisions about what they’re going to bring forward yet,” said Rep. Matt Rosendale, a Montana Republican.

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Rep. Chip Roy, a Freedom Caucus member who voted down the recent Trump-backed budget bill, left the meeting in a rush as lawmakers haggled.

“I’m not going to say a word, I’ve got somewhere to be,” Roy told reporters as he exited the room.

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back after getting numerous questions at her daily briefing Friday about why President Biden hasn’t spoken publicly about the possibility of a government shutdown.

“This is not for the president to fix,” she said. “Republicans need to fix the mess that they caused.”

President Joe Biden has discussed the potential shutdown with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday.

“There’s still time,” Jean-Pierre said, to avoid a partial government shutdown.

She said Republicans created the situation and are responsible for fixing it.

“Republicans blew up this deal. They did, and they need to fix this,” Jean-Pierre said.

That could involve splitting up the previous efforts — government funding, disaster and agricultural aid into separate votes — with a debt ceiling vote potentially later.

They’re meeting privately during the lunch hour to discuss next steps, with a shutdown less than 12 hours away.

That’s according to multiple people who received an update in a closed door Democratic Caucus meeting.

But there was no discussion in the meeting on whether a deal is being discussed or the details of legislation.

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson to return to a stopgap funding agreement he had negotiated with Democrats.

Schumer, a New York Democrat, called that agreement in a floor speech Friday morning “the quickest, simplest, and easiest way we can make sure the government stays open while delivering critical emergency aid to the American people.”

Johnson abandoned that legislation earlier this week after first Elon Musk, then President-elect Donald Trump opposed it. But the Republican speaker is facing few options to avert a government shutdown at the end of the day while also appeasing the demands of his fellow Republicans.

Democratic leaders so far have demanded that he stick to their deal in order to gain their support to pass it through Congress.

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Friday morning, Trump continued his insistence that a debt ceiling increase be included in any deal — and if not, let the closures “begin now.”

He issued his latest demand as Speaker Johnson arrived early at the Capitol, instantly holing up with Vice President-elect JD Vance and some of the most conservative Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus who helped sink Trump’s bill in a spectacular Thursday evening flop.

“If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now,” Trump posted on social media.

Trump does not fear government shutdowns the way Johnson and the lawmakers see federal closures as political losers that harm the livelihoods of Americans. The incoming Trump administration vows to slash the federal budget and fire thousands of employees. Trump himself sparked the longest government shutdown in history in his first term at the White House.

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries laid blame for the failure of a package to fund the federal government on Republican donors and the GOP’s economic agenda.

“Republicans would rather cut taxes for billionaire donors than fund research for children with cancer,” Jeffries, D-N.Y., wrote on the social media platform Bluesky.

The House Democrat’s leader further predicted a government shutdown “will crash the economy, hurt working-class Americans and likely be the longest in history.”

“Welcome back to the MAGA swamp,” he concluded.

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Before 9 a.m., a number of the speaker’s biggest critics brought their grievances to a private meeting as a shutdown deadline looms over Capitol Hill. Reps. Chip Roy, Andy Biggs, Bob Good and others, all who voted against the Trump-backed plan Thursday, met with Johnson as Republicans look for a way forward on a short-term spending deal that includes a suspension of the nation’s debt limit.

Good of Virginia came out and said he would surprised if there was a vote Friday on any path forward. Moments later, Rep. Lauren Boebert said Republicans were making progress and having Vice President-elect JD Vance in the room is helping move things toward a resolution that can get a majority on the floor.

“I think President Trump was possibly, sold a bad bill yesterday,” the Colorado lawmaker said. “I did not want to see a failure on the House floor for the first demand that President Trump is making.”

But, she added, the failure on the floor has forced many of her colleagues to come together Friday.

As the speaker twisted Thursday in Washington, his peril was on display at Turning Point USA’s conservative AmericaFest confab, where Trump ally and 2016 campaign architect Steven Bannon stirred thousands with a takedown of the Louisiana Republican.

“Clearly, Johnson is not up to the task. He’s gotta go. He’s gotta go,” Bannon said, drawing cheers and whistles.

Bannon, both a bellwether of and influencer on the mood among Trump’s core supporters, wasn’t done.

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“He doesn’t have what we call the right stuff — that combination of guts and moxie and savvy and toughness,” he said, comparing Johnson, a reserved, polite lawyer, to the gleeful brutishness of the president-elect and his populist backers. “You can punch MAGA in the face and they’re going to get up off the canvas, and they’re going to punch you back three times harder.”

Bannon didn’t float a replacement for Johnson but emphasized that the job description for any speaker — and every other Republican in Washington — is simple: “We have nothing to discuss. It’s only about the execution of President Trump’s plan.”

And he called Thursday’s proposed deal “laughable.”

“It’s not a serious proposal,” Jeffries said as he walked to Democrats’ own closed-door caucus meeting. Inside, Democrats were chanting, “Hell, no!”

Coming and going outside Speaker Mike Johnson’s office Thursday night, House Republicans offered little clarity on a path forward for a budget deal after a Trump-endorsed proposal failed to pass.

Rep. Kat Cammack, a Republican who voted against the bill, told reporters that “this was not an easy vote for constitutional conservatives.” She added, “We’re going to work through the night and figure out a plan.”

“We are still working diligently. and we are still making progress,” Rep. Lisa McClain said, without offering further details.

“We tried several things today most of our members went for, but the Democrats decided that they want to try and shut it down, but we’re going to keep working,” Rep. Steve Scalise, the Republican majority leader, told reporters. Nearly three dozen Republicans joined Democrats in voting down the resolution.

Vice President Kamala Harris cancelled a planned trip to Los Angeles with Washington on the verge of a government shutdown.

She had been scheduled to travel to her home state late Thursday, but instead will remain in the capital, the White House said, after Republicans backed away from a bipartisan compromise to fund the government.

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The House rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan Thursday to fund operations and suspend the debt ceiling.

In a hastily convened evening vote punctuated by angry outbursts over the self-made crisis, the lawmakers failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage — but House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared determined to reassess, before Friday’s midnight deadline.

“We’re going to regroup and we will come up with another solution, so stay tuned,” Johnson said after the vote. The cobbled-together plan didn’t even get a majority, with the bill failing 174-235.

The outcome proved a massive setback for Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk, who rampaged against Johnson’s bipartisan compromise, which Republicans and Democrats had reached earlier to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown.

▶ Read more about the vote and where things stand