The United States could face a government shutdown at midnight Saturday after President-elect Donald Trump called on Republican lawmakers to reject a bipartisan funding bill that would have kept the government funded until March.
Trump urged Congress to scrap the agreement and pass a smaller version with fewer provisions. His intervention came after strong criticism of the bill by technology billionaire Elon Musk.
Congressman Steve Scalise, the Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, indicated on Wednesday evening that the bill was dead after Trump condemned it.
Congress will need Congress to approve the short-term funding bill by the end of the week to prevent federal government offices from closing starting Saturday.
Now, the Republican leadership must go back to the drawing board, and only has until 23:59 EST (04:59 GMT) to reach a deal before funding runs out and the government shuts down.
The government shutdown could restrict federal services — from the National Park Service to the Border Patrol — and begin shutting down operations this weekend.
Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance delivered the final blow to House Speaker Mike Johnson's bipartisan funding bill on Wednesday evening after a Musk-led pressure campaign on Project X.
Musk, who has been tasked by Trump with cutting government spending in his future administration, has lobbied so hard against the current deal that he repeatedly posted on Wednesday against the bill, often with false statements.
The president and vice president-elect are pushing for streamlined legislation that does not include Democratic-backed provisions that Johnson negotiated with colleagues across the aisle.
The now-dead bipartisan agreement would have extended government funding until March 14 — several months after Trump returns to the White House.
The legislation is necessary because Congress never approved a budget for fiscal year 2025, which began on October 1. Instead, lawmakers chose to pass an extension of short-term funding through December 20.
In a joint statement, they also called on Congress to raise the debt ceiling, which limits how much the government can borrow to pay its bills, and limit funding legislation to temporary spending and disaster relief.
“Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is through a stopgap funding bill without Democratic giveaways combined with an increase in the debt ceiling,” the statement read. He reads.
They called anything else a “betrayal of our country.”
In his posts on the social networking site Truth Social, Trump threatened to help remove “any Republican who would be stupid enough” to vote in favor of the current version of the bill, which was unveiled on Tuesday.
“If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, let them call their bluff,” he said.
Johnson's ongoing 1,500-page resolution included more than $110 billion (£88 billion) in emergency disaster relief and $30 billion (£23 billion) in aid for farmers. It also included the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009, federal money to rebuild a bridge that collapsed in Baltimore, health care reforms and provisions aimed at preventing hotels and live event venues from deceptive advertising.
It's not clear how Johnson plans to move forward. The two parties will meet on Thursday to determine their party's path forward.
Democrats are unlikely to help Johnson support the reworked funding bill, blaming him for violating their bipartisan agreement.
“If you break the bipartisan agreement, you will suffer the consequences that follow,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, said on X.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement after Trump opposed the bill, saying: “Republicans must stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hard-working Americans and create instability across the country.”
President Joe Biden's spokeswoman continued: “Creating a harmful government shutdown would harm families,” adding: “An agreement is an agreement. Republicans must keep their word.”
There have been 21 US government shutdowns or partial shutdowns over the past five decades — the longest during Trump's first term when the government was shut down for 35 days.
