Senate passes bill to avert a government shutdown

Our live coverage of the government shutdown negotiations and Trump’s presidential transition has moved here.

The Senate voted to pass a stopgap funding bill, clearing the way for President Joe Biden to sign the measure into law.

The Senate passed the bill not long after midnight — technically after the funding deadline, but nevertheless averting a shutdown that would have had widespread impacts. The vote was 85 to 11.

The bill can now be sent to Biden to be signed into law. The House passed the bill Friday evening.

The legislation extends government funding into March and provides disaster relief and farm aid, but does not include a suspension of the debt limit, which President-elect Donald Trump had demanded Republicans address.

The Senate floor is seen on December 20.

The Senate has taken up the stopgap spending bill passed by the House, and is now holding a vote on the proposal after missing the midnight deadline to avoid a government shutdown. The spending bill would fund the federal government through March.

The spending bill includes disaster relief and farming provisions, but does not include a suspension of the debt limit, which President-elect Donald Trump has been demanding Republicans address.

This is “Plan C,” after Trump and close allies sank an initial bipartisan bid earlier this week, and then a Trump-backed plan failed in the House on Thursday.

The Office of Management and Budget is not shutting down the federal government as the Senate is close to passing the funding bill, according to the White House.

The Senate passed the Social Security Fairness Act tonight, 76-20, restoring and increasing Social Security benefits for some public workers.

The bill had previously passed the House on November 12 and now heads to the president’s desk.

The midnight deadline has lapsed to avert a government shutdown, but if the Senate passes the bill that the House approved earlier, a closure will likely cause little disruption.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks with reporters at the Capitol on Friday night.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Friday night that senators have reached an agreement to vote on the stop gap funding bill before midnight. If passed as it is expected to, Congress will prevent a shutdown of the federal government.

Exiting the floor, the New York Democrat said: “It’s looking good.”

“We’re feeling very good. Good bipartisan compromise, no shutdown, no debt ceiling and a lot of money for people in need, because of — you know, because of disasters,” Schumer said.

John Thune talks to reporters at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on December 18.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune responded to the debt limit not making it into the House-passed stop gap funding package, despite President-elect Donald Trump’s insistence that it be included.

Thune told reporters that he has not spoken to Trump tonight. When asked about Trump’s disappointment about the debt limit being left out of the bill, Thune ignored the question and walked inside his office.

Just before the House voted Friday night, President-elect Donald Trump lamented to one GOP lawmaker that he was ultimately disappointed the spending deal couldn’t include a hike in the debt ceiling, an issue that he knows now he will have to confront in his presidency.

The source familiar with the call told CNN that Trump seemed frustrated yet resigned as reality began setting in for the president-elect that despite his massive influence over the GOP, there are some issues that some conservatives will not bend on for him.

Those close to Trump warned he could be blamed for funding lapsing in the weeks before his inauguration if the government shutdown, but the source said that while the incoming president seemed resigned, he was not enthusiastic about the outcome. Trump ultimately got to that place after conversations with allies and lawmakers, many of whom stressed over the last 12 hours that there was no way to get what he wanted and also avoid a shutdown, sources told CNN.

Tonight, the Senate unanimously passed the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act 2.0, which reauthorizes a pediatric cancer research initiative through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) into 2028.

This provision had originally been part of the stop gap funding deal negotiated by Congressional leadership, but it was dropped after President-elect Donald Trump insisted on a “clean” short term spending package, without extra measures included.

Earlier this week, House Republicans pushed back on outrage over the funding being cut from the package, arguing that Senate Democrats were to blame for waiting months to bring up the bill. The House had passed the research funding reauthorization on March 5.

The research initiative is named after Gabriella Miller, a Virginia resident who had an inoperable brain tumor and died in 2013 at the age of 10. The following year, former President Barack Obama signed into law the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, which authorized $12.6 million in annual funds for childhood disease research through fiscal year 2023.

Ellyn Miller, Gabriella’s mother, told CNN Friday night after the bill was passed that she felt “elation, for not just for myself and my family, and in honor of my daughter, but for the entire childhood cancer world. This means so much to all of us.”

House Republicans who opposed the spending bill that passed on Friday criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson’s handling of the process, casting doubt on how smooth his path to being reelected to his position in January will be.

Rep. Keith Self of Texas said he wants Congress to pass simple funding bills, explaining, “it’s the only way to govern.” He said he had no comment on whether he’ll back Johnson next year.

Rep. Chip Roy, wo has repeatedly opposed the spending levels in proposals put forth by Johnson, conceded that Republicans “ended up getting the framework for actual spending cuts in a significant way” in the latest bill.

When asked if he thinks Johnson’s chances of being elected speaker have been compromised, Roy said he’s “not gonna go down that road,” adding, “we’ve got through tonight.”

“We managed to, I think, deliver something that was useful and productive and provides a framework for, you know, productivity in January. So we got to figure out how to organize to get that done,” The Texas Republican said, adding that “we could have delivered this product three days ago.”

Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida told CNN he voted for the bill in the interest of disaster aid for his state, but noted it “could have been more streamlined,” adding “at the end of the day, this place is never easy. I mean, the speaker’s doing the best he can.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer assured reporters on Friday night that the Senate is working on a plan to pass the stop gap funding package.

“We’re working through the amendment process right now,” the New York Democrat told CNN. “That’s where I’m going, to work through the amendment process right now.”

Asked about his outlook on the debt ceiling next year, Schumer wouldn’t say if he agrees with Democrats who say they should only engage if Trump agrees to abolish it.

“Look, I think that the bottom line is that this would have been very unfortunate time to add the debt limit to any agreement to any CR (continuing resolution) and I’m very glad we didn’t,” Schumer said.

Schumer said he was glad Republican leadership and members “were able to tell Elon Musk he was wrong when it comes to debt.” He refused to comment when pressed on whether Trump is taking too much direction from Musk, who’s influence led House Republicans to scrap an initial Bipartisan deal earlier this week.

While Democrats didn’t get everything they wanted, Schumer said it was important to get disaster relief through the finish line and prevent a government shutdown.

“We kept the government open, and we didn’t get the debt ceiling. So, there were three major victories. We didn’t get everything we wanted, but I think if you look at the vote in the House, people felt pretty good. It was virtually unanimous,” Schumer said.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer takes questions from reporters at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on December 17.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he is “confident” the Senate will pass the stopgap spending bill to prevent a federal government shutdown.

“The House has overwhelmingly passed a bill to keep the government open and I’m confident the Senate will pass it as well. We hope to get it passed as soon as possible,” the New York Democrat wrote in a post on X.

Some context: Schumer is alluding to efforts by President-elect Donald Trump, who torpedoed an initial bipartisan funding deal, to inject the politically fraught issue of the debt ceiling into funding negotiations.

A Trump-backed measure that would have suspended the debt limit before he takes office in January failed in the House on Thursday, leaving Democrats with “Plan C”: the bill headed to the Senate for a vote tonight.

Throughout the government funding negotiating process, particularly when lawmakers reached an impasse, House Speaker Mike Johnson returned to a similar joke: He welcomed anyone else who could get 218 votes.

It takes 218 votes to establish a majority in the lower chamber — and to hold on to the speakership — when every member casts a ballot.

“In reality, I think we all know that getting to 218 in this conference today is not an easy task for anyone,” Valadao added. “These past two years have been a little bit of a roller coaster, and we expect that to continue.”

Some background: Many lawmakers left for the holidays frustrated at Johnson for leaving them in the dark for much of this process, or for how he created a lot of angst by pivoting his government funding plan at the last minute, only to revert back to essentially his original position.

But most Republicans are hoping that time away for the holidays will ease the tensions of the real divisions that exist within the narrow House Republican majority. And very few actually are ready to oust Johnson.

For now, Johnson has something in his back pocket that has been his human shield: the support of President-elect Donald Trump.

“President Trump says he’s supporting him, and I’m supporting him,” Republican Rep. Mike Collins said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks with reporters as he arrives at Capitol Hill, on December 20.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats have “successfully funded the government” and fought for Americans after the chamber passed a spending package to avoid a shutdown on Friday.

The House passed a bill to keep the government funded into March with support from Democrats. Before the vote, CNN reported that Jeffries signaled to his Democratic members that he will not instruct the party to oppose the GOP bill, despite some objections.

Speaking to reporters shortly after the bill’s passage, Jeffries touted several provisions in the bill, including a bipartisan disaster aid package and money for child care.

He also praised Democrats for preventing a debt limit hike, saying his party “stopped the billionaire boys club, which wanted a $4 trillion blank check by suspending the debt ceiling.”

The issue of the debt ceiling was not included in this bill after President-elect Donald Trump and allies, including tech billionaire Elon Musk, demanded it be added to negotiations on Thursday.

“This is a victory for the American people,” the minority leader said Friday, adding that there are still things to fight for in the new year, when the GOP will take control of both chambers.

House Speaker Mike Johnson walks to the House Chamber from his office at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on December 20.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he was in “constant contact” with President-elect Donald Trump throughout the process of negotiating a new stopgap funding bill in time to prevent a government shutdown.

Trump’s opposition to Johnson’s initial plan earlier this week prompted House Republicans to scrap it.

Johnson also noted that he spoke to Elon Musk — the tech billionaire whose influence helped tank the initial bipartisan deal — “about the extraordinary challenges of the job.”

“And I said, ‘Hey, you want to be Speaker of the House? I don’t know,’” Johnson said. “He said, ‘This may be the hardest job in the world.’”

House Speaker Mike Johnson said things are going to be “very different around here” when Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress in January, while applauding the passage of a stopgap spending bill on Friday.

The House passed a bill to keep the government funded into March. The bill, which also includes disaster relief and farming provisions, will now go to the Senate.

Johnson called it a “very important piece of legislation,” but also a “necessary step to bridge the gap to put us into that moment where we can put our fingerprints on the final decisions on spending for 2025.”

“We are set up for a big and important new start in January,” Johnson said.

Johnson had to come up with a new deal after President-elect Donald Trump demanded on Thursday that a suspension of the debt limit be included in the bill — which failed last night. This bill that passed the House on Friday does not address the debt limit.

“We’re grateful that everyone stood together to do the right thing,” he said, urging swift passage in the Senate.

The House floor is seen on December 20.

The House has voted to pass a stopgap funding bill just hours before a midnight deadline to avert a federal government shutdown. The Senate must next take up the bill.

The vote was 366 to 34. Thirty-four Republicans voted against the bill, and one Democrat voted present.

The bill would extend government funding into March and includes disaster relief and farming provisions, but does not include a suspension of the debt limit, which President-elect Donald Trump has been demanding Republicans address.

White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre offered qualified praise for a proposal from House Republicans to fund the government and avoid a government shutdown, writing in a statement Friday, “President Biden supports moving this legislation forward and ensuring that the vital services the government provides for hardworking Americans.”

The White House has blasted Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance, and billionaire Elon Musk for blowing up a bipartisan funding deal earlier this week, with Jean-Pierre saying GOP lawmakers were “doing the bidding of their billionaire benefactors,” by reneging on their agreement with Democrats.

Biden himself has yet to weigh in on the fight to fund the government — during Friday’s press briefing, Jean-Pierre defended Biden’s silence on the issue, telling CNN, “This is a strategy that we have done many times before, not the first time, and this is for Republicans in Congress in the House specifically to fix. They created this mess.”

Tech billionaire and Donald Trump confidante Elon Musk — whose influence played a role in tanking an initial bipartisan funding bill this week — offered some praise for Johnson’s “Plan C” tonight, after a plan backed by the president-elect also failed Thursday.