The US could face a government shutdown at midnight on Saturday after President-elect Donald Trump urged Republican lawmakers to reject a bipartisan funding bill that would have kept the government funded through March.
Trump urged Congress to scrap the deal and pass a slimmer version with fewer provisions. His intervention followed sharp criticism of the bill from tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Congressman Steve Scalise, the Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, indicated on Wednesday night that the bill was dead after Trump denounced it.
The short-term funding bill will need to be passed by Congress by the end of the week to prevent federal government offices from closing on Saturday.
Now the Republican leadership must go back to the drawing board, and they have only until 23:59 EDT (04:59 GMT) to reach a deal before funding runs out and the government shuts down.
A government shutdown would cause federal agencies — from the National Park Service to the Border Patrol — to curtail and begin shutting down operations this weekend.
Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance delivered the final blow to House Speaker Mike Johnson's bipartisan funding bill on Wednesday night after a pressure campaign led by Mr. Musk on X.
Mr. Musk, whom Trump has tasked with cutting government spending in his incoming administration, lobbied hard against the existing deal, posting repeatedly on Wednesday against the bill, often with false statements.
The president-elect and vice president are pushing for streamlined legislation that doesn't include the Democratic-backed provisions Johnson negotiated with his colleagues across the aisle.
The now-dead bipartisan deal would have extended government funding until March 14 — several months after Trump's return to the White House.
The legislation is needed because Congress has never passed a budget for fiscal year 2025, which began on Oct. 1. Instead, lawmakers opted to pass a short-term funding extension through Dec. 20.
They also called in a joint statement for Congress to raise the debt ceiling, which determines how much the government can borrow to pay its bills, and limit funding legislation to temporary spending and disaster relief.
“Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025.” The only way we can do that is with a stopgap funding bill WITH NO DEMOCRATIC GIFTS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling,” the statement read.
They called anything else “treason to our country.”
In posts on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump threatened to help oust “any Republican who would be so foolish as to” vote in favor of the current version of the bill, which was introduced on Tuesday.
“If the Democrats are threatening to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF,” he said.
Johnson's 1,500-page continuing resolution includes more than $110bn (£88bn) in emergency disaster relief and $30bn (£23bn) in aid to farmers. It also includes the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009. to, federal funds to rebuild a bridge that collapsed in Baltimore, health care reforms and regulations aimed at preventing fraudulent advertising in hotels and live event venues.
It's unclear how Johnson plans to proceed. Both parties are meeting on Thursday to decide their party's way forward.
Democrats are unlikely to help Johnson with support for a revised funding bill, accusing him of violating their bipartisan agreement.
“You break the bipartisan agreement, you suffer the consequences that follow,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, posted on X.
White House Press Secretary Karin Jean-Pierre issued a statement after Trump spoke out against the bill, saying, “Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan deal or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country.”
“Initiating a disastrous government shutdown would hurt families,” the president's spokeswoman, Joe Biden, continued, adding, “A deal's a deal. Republicans must keep their word.”
In the past five decades, there have been 21 shutdowns or partial shutdowns of the US government – the longest of which was during Trump's first term, when the government shut down for 35 days.