Government shutdown live updates: Spending bill passes Senate and goes to Biden for approval
Preparations to close government agencies called off as president set to sign new legislation
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Your support makes all the difference.The US Congress has passed a spending legislation that will avert a destabilising government shutdown ahead of the busy holiday travel season.
The Senate, controlled by the Democrats, passed the bill by a 85-11 vote to continue government funding 38 minutes after it expired at midnight (5am GMT Saturday).
The bill will now be sent to the White House, where president Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law.Federal funding was about to run out at midnight on Friday and the White House Office of Management and Budget warned government agencies to prepare for the worst before the vote took place.
The late-night vote in the Senate capped a frantic week that saw president-elect Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk defeat an initial bipartisan deal, throwing Congress into disarray.
The final version stripped out some provisions championed by the Democrats, who accused the Republicans of caving in to pressure from an unelected billionaire with no experience in government.
The package had earlier cleared the House of Representatives, controlled by the Republicans, with bipartisan support.
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Will the Senate vote before midnight? TBD
The Senate is headed for a long night.
The upper chamber is expected to pass the government spending bill that cleared the House earlier today, but they have yet to vote on it.
Asked about whether the Senate will vote before midnight, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer didn’t quite give a straight answer.
Here’s what he said, courtesy of CSPAN.
Trump moves his entire $4 billion stake in Truth Social into his trust ahead of White House move
Donald Trump has transferred all 114.75 million of his shares in the parent company that runs his Truth Social platform into a revocable trust before he returns to the White House.
His shares in Trump Media & Technology Group are currently worth roughly $4 billion, representing the lion’s share of his roughly $6 billion net worth. He is the group’s largest shareholder.
Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show the president-elect transferring the stake into the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust earlier this week. His oldest son Donald Trump Jr is the sole trustee, and has sole voting and investment power over securities held by the trust, according to filings.
Read more:
Trump moves his entire $4 billion stake in Truth Social into his trust
The incoming president moved shares that make up the lion’s share of his net worth
WATCH: Senate confirms record 235th Biden admin judge
The Senate just voted to confirm the Biden administration’s 235th federal Article III judge, one more judicial nomination than the previous Trump administration was able to get through.
Hakeem Jeffries celebrates defeat of ‘billionaire boys club’ spending proposals
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries celebrated the lower chamber’s passage on Friday of a spending bill to avert a government shutdown, just a crucial midnight deadline.
Jeffries said the package, which passed the House without any Democratic opposition, helped ensure the “future of working class Americans” and pointed to provisions like $100 billion in disaster assistance.
The leader also said the bill, which will keep the government funded through mid-March, was a rebuke to the “billionaire boys club” of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who pushed to scuttle a bipartisan spending plan earlier in the week, and considered a plan that would suspend the debt ceiling to further enable the Trump administration’s plans.
Get all the details on the House version of the spending plan.
House narrowly averts government shutdown — and rejects Trump’s debt ceiling commands
House lawmakers overwhelmingly approve a third attempt at a short-term funding bill to keep the government running before Christmas
Watch: GOP Representative Malliotakis voices her frustration with Speaker Johnson
Trump’s Congress chaos is a reminder we should brace for ‘unknown unknowns’
With a month to go before he officially becomes the 47th president of the United States, Donald J Trump is already causing mayhem. His rejection of a bipartisan budget deal in Congress has threatened a federal shutdown and triggered huge anxiety for employees and those dependent on public services just before Christmas.
It’s not the first such game of fiscal “chicken” indulged in by America’s politicians – but it serves as a pointed reminder, were it needed, of what may be expected in the coming four years or so.
Read more:
Trump’s Congress chaos is a reminder we should brace for ‘unknown unknowns’
Editorial: After US lawmakers struggled to prevent a government shutdown – prompted by the president-elect’s budget intervention that even divided his own party – the pandemonium has been a salient reminder about what is surely in store for his second term
Vote passes 366 - 34
House members voted 366-34, with one member voting present.
Those 34 votes were all Republicans.
A bill to fund the government through mid-March marked a third attempt within two days to avert a shutdown, after Donald Trump and Elon Musk commanded Congress to ditch the original bipartisan framework and left congressional Democrats and even some Republicans exhausted with the growing political influence of the world’s wealthiest person.
The funding battle glimpsed how Democrats are approaching the incoming Trump-Musk administration and how they will navigate Trump’s agenda with an extremely slim Republican majority.
Full story here:
House narrowly averts government shutdown — and rejects Trump’s debt ceiling commands
House lawmakers overwhelmingly approve a third attempt at a short-term funding bill to keep the government running before Christmas
Latest package resembles bipartisan plan that failed earlier in the week
The latest package resembled a bipartisan plan that was abandoned earlier this week after an online fusillade from Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, who said it contained too many unrelated provisions.
That bill would have kept the government agencies operating at current levels, provided an additional $100 billion in disaster aid for storm-hit states and another $10 billion for farmers. It also would extend farm and food aid programs due to expire at the end of the year.
Trump demanded a rewrite to also lift the nation’s debt ceiling, but that was resoundingly rejected by the House - including 38 Republicans - on Thursday.
BREAKING: House passes government funding bill hours before shutdown deadline
Just in: The House has just approved the three-month government funding bill, sending to Senate with just hours left before shutdown deadline.
Elon Musk praises Speaker Mike Johnson after torpedoing first bill
Elon Musk has praised Speaker Mike Johnson tonight after the tech billionaire torpedoed Johnson’s first bipartisan deal.
“The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances,” Musk posted on X.
“It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces. Ball should now be in the Dem court.”
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