A final budget bill has passed the United States House of Representatives to keep the federal government funded and running until mid-March, averting an impending shutdown.
The ongoing resolution now goes to the Senate just hours before the adjournment is due to take place on Saturday at 12:01am (05:01 GMT).
On Friday evening, the temporary budget legislation passed the House with a majority of 366 votes in favor.
Only 34 representatives, all Republicans, voted against the bill. One Democrat, Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas, refused to vote “here”.
“We are very pleased that tonight, by a majority vote, we passed the American Relief Act of 2025,” Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, said at a press conference on the vote.
The stopgap bill, however, left out one key issue that has stalled recent negotiations: the debt ceiling.
In general, Congress measures federal income differently from debt, which prevents the government from borrowing.
But this week, President-elect Donald Trump blasted the original bipartisan resolution in part because it did not slow or end the debt crisis, which he likened to a “guillotine” hanging over his incoming administration.
The debt ceiling has been a divisive issue among Republicans, some of whom fear increasing or eliminating it could set the stage for government spending.
Trump, for his part, to threaten to set up serious challenges for any Republican who opposes his plan. He expressed his desire for the debt debate to take place under the leadership of President Joe Biden, a Democrat and his re-election rival.
“Unless the Democrats cancel or extend the Debt Relief now, I will fight to the end,” Trump said social media post on the third. “This is a scumbag set up by the Radical Left Democrats! They want to embarrass us in June when we vote.”
Trump's opposition This week's two-part rule it put him at odds with Johnson, another top Republican leader. Johnson's running mate for the post, Republican Kevin McCarthy, was was removed last year in a historic vote on his role in passing the bipartisan spending bill.
After the first bipartisan bill passed Wednesday, Trump backed it Another version which failed in the House the next day, Thursday. All Democrats opposed it, along with 38 Republicans.
Friday's bill managed to regain Democratic support after a closed-door debate. In his post-vote speech, Johnson tried to present the latest funding as a victory for Trump's America First economic platform.
“This is the America First Act, because it allows us to be established to give to the American people,” Johnson said.
He also talked about the changes that will take place in January, when the new Congress is sworn in and Donald Trump takes the second term. When that happens, Republicans will have majorities in both chambers of Congress.
“In January, we're going to change the ocean in Washington,” Johnson said. “Things will be very different here. That was an important step to close the gap, putting us in a position where we can put our fingers on the application of 2025.”
Like previous bills, the stopgap measure passed on Friday contains about $10bn in farm aid and $100bn in disaster relief, much needed after the devastation of hurricanes like Helene and Milton.
But the hysteria that accompanied an earlier version of the bill subsided Friday night, with Trump allies like billionaire Elon Musk signing the pen.
Musk, who has denounced Wednesday's book as a “blame”, praised Speaker Johnson after she voted Friday night for the amendment.
“The speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances,” he said he wrote on his social network X. “It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces.”
Democrats, meanwhile, questioned Musk's growing influence on the Republican Party. Musk is expected to advise the incoming Trump administration in the new role, as part of an unorganized, unorganized agency known as the Department of Government Efficiency.
“Obviously, the thing that Donald Trump wanted, he didn't get,” Representative Jared Moskowitz of Florida told reporters as he walked down the Capitol steps. “It looks like Elon got some of the things he wanted. So that's exciting.”
Moskowitz praised Democrats for giving Republicans the majority they needed to pass the bill in the House, despite disagreements within the caucus.
He said: “The drama that happened here two days ago was not supposed to happen.” “And we ended up in the same place where we were going, where it was the Democrats who cast the majority of votes to keep the government open and deliver for the American people.”