WASHINGTON (AP) — The House rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan Thursday to fund federal operations and suspend the debt ceiling a day before a government shutdown, as Democrats refused to accommodate the quick fix cobbled together by Republican leaders.
In a hastily convened evening vote, the lawmakers failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage — but House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared determined to try again before Friday’s midnight deadline.
“We’re going to do the right thing here,” Johnson said ahead of the vote. But he 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 but controverisal compromise, which Republicans and Democrats had reached earlier to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown.
Hours earlier, Trump announced “SUCCESS in Washington!” in coming up with the new package which would keep government running for three more months, add $100.4 billion in disaster assistance including for hurricane-hit states, and allow more borrowing through Jan. 30, 2027.
“Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good Deal,” Trump posted.
But Republicans, who had spent 24 hours largely negotiating with themselves to come up with the new plan, ran into a wall of resistance from Democrats, who were were in no hurry to appease demands from Trump — or his billionaire ally Musk.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats were sticking with the original deal with Johnson and called the new one “laughable.”
All day, Johnson had been fighting to figure out how to meet Trump’s sudden demands — and keep his own job — while federal offices are being told to prepare to shutter operations.
The new proposal whittled the 1,500-page bill to 116 pages and drops a number of add-ons — notably a pay raise for lawmakers, which could have allowed as much as a 3.8% bump. That drew particular scorn as Musk turned his social media army against the bill.
Trump said early Thursday that Johnson will “easily remain speaker” for the next Congress if he “acts decisively and tough” in coming up with a new plan to also raise the debt limit, a stunning request just before the Christmas holidays that has put the beleaguered speaker in a bind.
And if not, the president-elect warned of trouble ahead for Johnson and Republicans in Congress.
“Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” Trump told Fox News Digital.
The tumultuous turn of events, coming as lawmakers were preparing to head home for the holidays.
Federal funding is scheduled to expire at midnight Friday as a current temporary government funding bill runs out.
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