What’s New
The U.S. Senate passed an eleventh-hour funding bill to keep the government operating shortly before a midnight deadline on Friday. The vote was 85 to 11.
Why It Matters
The bill’s passage comes after President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk scuttled an earlier bipartisan continuing resolution (CR) in the House of Representatives aimed at averting a government shutdown.
Friday’s measure is largely similar to an earlier proposal that failed on Thursday, with one key difference: it does not include Trump’s directive to raise or eliminate the debt ceiling.
What To Know
Democrats and Republicans alike balked at Thursday’s proposal, which included Trump’s demand for a two-year suspension of the debt ceiling. It required two-thirds support to pass the House of Representatives and fell far short of that threshold, failing by a vote of 174-235, with one member voting present.
Thirty-eight Republicans joined Democrats to vote down Thursday’s proposal, bucking Trump, Musk, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, all of whom had urged lawmakers to back the measure.
Friday’s CR succeeded after Republicans conceded to Democrats’ demands to drop the debt ceiling suspension. The bill passed by a vote of 366-34, with one member voting present. Every Democrat voted in favor of the final CR, as did a majority of Republicans.
Thirty-four Republican lawmakers voted against it.
The House of Representatives was poised to pass the original CR on Wednesday, but Musk and Trump threw a wrench into that plan when they demanded that Republicans go back to the drawing board.
“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH,” Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance said in a statement opposing the deal on Wednesday evening.
The statement came after Musk, who will co-direct the Department of Government Efficiency with Vivek Ramaswamy next year, came out in sharp opposition to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s government funding bill.
“‘Shutting down’ the government (which doesn’t actually shut down critical functions btw) is infinitely better than passing a horrible bill,” Musk wrote in an X post.
They called to increase the debt ceiling, saying that while it’s “not great,” they would rather see it happen “on Biden’s watch,” referring to outgoing President Joe Biden.
The development sent House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican members scrambling to come up with a new proposal and baffled senators on both sides of the aisle.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
What People Are Saying
Speaker Johnson spoke to reporters after the bill passed in Congress Friday night saying in part, “We are really grateful that tonight, in bipartisan fashion with an overwhelming majority of votes, we passed the American Relief Act of 2025. It’s a very important piece of legislation. It funds the government, of course, until March of 2025. That was a big priority for us.”
Johnson continued, “I was in constant contact with President Trump throughout this process, spoke with him most recently about 45 minutes ago. He knew exactly what we were doing and why, and this is a good outcome for the country. I think he certainly is happy about this outcome as well. Elon Musk and I talked within about an hour ago and we talked about the extraordinary challenges of this job.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Bluesky after the House passed the bill on Friday in part, “House Democrats have successfully funded the government at levels requested by President Biden in order to meet the needs of the American people in terms of their health, safety and economic well-being.”
Jeffries concluded, “This is a victory for the American people. We have successfully advanced the needs of everyday Americans, but there are still things to be worked on, and we look forward to that fight in the new year.”
What Happens Next
Now that the Senate has passed the spending bill, the government can continue to run and will not shut down. The bill will allow the government to be funded until the middle of March.
This story is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available.
