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Republicans in the US House of Representatives have drafted a new spending bill that responds to Donald Trump's request to seek a two-year extension of the debt limit in order to avoid a government shutdown by the end of the week.
The 116-page bill introduced Thursday would extend government spending through March 14 and include billions of dollars for communities devastated by natural disasters. The president-elect urged Republicans and Democrats to vote in favor of the agreement. “Success in Washington!” He posted on his Truth Social platform
However, Democrats immediately slammed the proposal, raising questions about whether the Republican House speaker Mike Johnson He received enough votes to pass his new plan.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters, “The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious,” referring to Trump’s billionaire advisor, Elon Musk. “It's laughable. Extremist Republicans are leading us to shut down the government.”
The House and Senate will need to move quickly to vote on the bill in order to send it to President Joe Biden for his signature before the Friday night deadline, after which the government will shut down.
The second attempt comes after that Trump This sent House Republicans scrambling to reject the initial spending bill, negotiated by Johnson, which the president-elect deemed “unacceptable.” The president-elect also made an additional request that lawmakers include a measure to raise the government debt ceiling.
Musk ramped up pressure on Johnson and Republicans in a series of social media posts on his platform
The legislative crisis has put Johnson's leadership in doubt, with far-right members such as… Marjorie Taylor Greene Believing Musk could replace him as speaker.
This sarcasm highlighted Johnson's weakness. Asked by NBC News Thursday morning whether he still had confidence in the Speaker of the House, Trump said: “We'll see.”
The first bill was negotiated to bridge the three-month gap between Johnson and Democrats, whose support he would need to pass the bill. A government shutdown could have been avoided by maintaining current spending levels until March 14, when Republicans can take control of Congress after winning the November election.
It also contained unrelated provisions, including a pay raise for members of Congress and an easier path for the Washington Commanders NFL team to move its stadium from Maryland to Washington, D.C.
But the bill did not touch the debt limit, which was expected to expire in the first few months of Trump's second term. Trump called it a “Democrat trap” and threatened Republican members that he would field primary challengers against them in the upcoming election if they voted to support a short-term spending measure without raising the debt ceiling.
“Nothing will be approved unless the debt ceiling is finalized,” Trump said. ABC news. “If we don't get it, we're going to have a shutdown, but it's going to be a Biden shutdown, because shutdowns are only limited to the person who's the president.”
In reference to the targeted attacks promised by Trump and Musk against Republicans who disobey their directives, Trump on Thursday singled out conservative Representative in the House of Representatives Chip Roy, who has consistently sought to cut spending, for criticism.
“Chip Roy is just another ambitious guy with no talent,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I hope some talented competitor in the great state of Texas is preparing to go after Chip in the primary. He won't stand a chance!”
Roy responded to X that he would oppose the legislation anyway, alluding to concerns among Republican fiscal hawks. “New bill: $110 billion in (unpaid) deficit spending, $4 trillion+ debt ceiling increase with $0 in structural reform cuts.”
The debt ceiling is a perennial problem for lawmakers, who suspended the borrowing cap until January 1 in an agreement reached last year. To borrow beyond that limit, the Treasury can use what it calls “extraordinary measures” to cover new expenditures without violating the cap.
This could buy the government time before it has to worry about a potential default – a disastrous outcome for the world's largest economy and most important financial system.
