Government shutdown live updates: Spending bill passes Senate and goes to Biden for approval

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.

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 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.”

Voting is underway on the short-term agreement to avert a government shutdown.

The bill is 188 pages long, down from the 1,500-plus pages of the first bipartisan spending bill that failed earlier this week.

Democratic leadership isn’t whipping votes to support the latest bill.

It needs a two-thirds majority to pass.

Ahead of the vote to prevent a government shutdown, expected imminently, Democrat Rep. Rosa DeLauro says that Elon Musk has thrown Congress into “pandemonium.”

Elon Musk is getting involved in the government funding fight once again, questioning whether Speaker Mike Johnson’s latest deal is a “Republican or a Democrat bill” in a post on X.

Musk was responding to Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky who claimed that Johnson was trying to pass a lone funding plan, including assistance for farmers and disaster aid, after getting word from House Democrats that they would support it.

In the waning days of President Joe Biden‘s administration, the government’s highway safety agency is proposing voluntary safety guidelines for self-driving vehicles.

But a rule from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration putting the plan in place won’t be approved before the end of Biden’s term in January and likely will be left to whoever runs the agency under Republican Donald Trump.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whom Trump has named to co-lead a “Department of Government Efficiency” to cut costs and regulations, has floated the idea of him helping to develop safety standards for self-driving vehicles — even though the standards would affect Tesla’s automated driving systems.

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Lord Peter Mandelson has made a career of comebacks – from spin doctor to returning to cabinet after quitting twice – and is back again as Britain’s ambassador to the US.

It marks the first political appointment to the UK’s top diplomatic post in Washington in decades.

Peter Mandelson started out as a Labour communications director in 1985 and was first elected as an MP in 1992. He served in the cabinets of Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Donald Trump – who returns to the White House in January, four years after being ousted – may relate to his comeback story.

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Rep. Chip Roy of Texas brushed off the threat of a primary challenge Friday.

“That’s just politics, just rough and tumble ... my life isn’t built around whether I have an election certificate, my life is built around winning for the American people, winning for my constituents,” he said. “And I think we’ve done that here by saying we can deliver for the president, which means delivering for the American people, while also holding on to our commitment that we’re not going to let the debt ceiling without spending cuts.”

In his last floor remarks as leader of the Republican Senate conference, Sen. Mitch McConnell said, “Folks come to Washington to do one of two things: either to make a point or to make a difference … it’s usually not that hard to tell who’s doing which, especially in situations like the one we’re in right now.”