Live coverage: Senate sends bill to avert shutdown to Biden’s desk

The Senate in the early hours of Saturday passed a stopgap funding package, avoiding a government shutdown that would have furloughed hundreds of thousands of federal workers and bringing a tumultuous week in Congress to a close.

Senators voted 85-11 to approve a continuing resolution (CR) that extends funding at current levels until March 14, provides more than $100 billion in disaster assistance to areas ravaged by hurricanes and other storms and includes economic assistance for farmers.

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The Senate voted overwhelmingly in the early hours of Saturday to pass legislation to boost Social Security benefits for more than 2 million Americans.

The legislation will repeal two statutes that have reduced payouts to state and local police, firefighters, teachers and other public sector workers and their spouses for years.

The legislation passed by a vote of 76-20. President Biden is expected to sign it into law.

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The Senate voted overwhelmingly to defeat an amendment sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to gradually raise the Social Security retirement age from 67 to 70 over the next 12 years.

It failed by a lopsided margin of 3 to 93.

“Came close,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) quipped after the presiding chair gaveled the end of the vote.

Paul offered the amendment to offset the cost of the Social Security Fairness Act, a bill to repeal two statutes that limit the payouts to police officers, firefighters, teachers and other state and local public sector workers.

The Social Security Fairness Act is expected to pass the Senate Friday evening and receive President Biden’s signature to become law.

Paul offered his amendment to offset the $196 billion the bill is projected to add to the deficit over the next decade.

The Congressional Budget Office projects the Social Security Fairness Act will speed up the insolvency of the popular entitlement program by six months.

Paul explained his proposal would raise the retirement age by three months every year and argued Congress will have to raise it sooner or later to save the Social Security’s finances.

“What it does is actually pays for this $200 billion expansion and then some. It has to be done. It will be done at some point. I offered it 13 years ago, and every year we waited, we’ve gotten further behind the 8-ball and it is harder to dig out of this hole,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that leaders in the upper chamber struck an agreement to expedite passage of the stopgap spending bill ahead of the midnight deadline to fund the government.

“I have very good news for my colleagues and the country. Democrats and Republicans have just reached an agreement that will allow us to pass the CR tonight before the midnight deadline,” he said on the Senate floor.

The Senate will first vote on six amendments related so a Social Security reform bill, then final passage of that bill, then the continuing resolution.

Rep. Sydney Kamlager (D-Calif.) said that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) does does not have support to keep his gavel once next Congress starts in 2025.

When asked on FOX 11 Los Angeles Friday night if Johnson can remain the speaker of the lower chamber, Kamlager said “I do not.”

“He will get no support from Democrats because he reneged on his deal. Your word is your bond, and he broke it, and now we know that the real person we have to negotiate with is Elon Musk,” Kamlager told anchor Elex Michaelson, referencing the tech billionaire’s influence during the spending package negotiating process.

“It’s not even [President-elect] Donald Trump,” she said. “I don’t think he has the support that he needs in January to remain speaker.”

The Senate late on Friday night unanimously passed $190 million in funding for pediatric cancer research after it was stripped from the initial stopgap spending package.

As Senate leaders were trying to strike a time agreement for the continuing resolution, the upper chamber separately passed the legislation — the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act 2.0 — via voice vote. 

Democrats were angry that it had been removed from the bipartisan package initially. It passed the House in March. 

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), chair of the House Freedom Caucus, said he’s undecided on who he will support to lead the House as speaker in January.

“Since President Trump’s historic election to bring down spending, deficits, and inflation, the ‘Republican’-led House has INITIATED $300 billion in unpaid for new spending, without even ATTEMPTING offsets to prevent skyrocketing the deficit and debt. Future generations deserve better,” he wrote in a statement Friday night.

“I am now undecided on what House leadership should look like in the 119th Congress,” Harris added.

Democratic Whip Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.) touted the support House Democrats showed for the government spending bill that cleared the lower chamber and criticized Republicans for showing “deference to billionaires.”

“For the sixth time in two years, House Republicans brought the government to the brink of a shutdown that would have withheld pay from our troops, stranded travelers at airports, and taken food from hungry families,” Clark said in a statement shortly following the bill’s passage in the House.

“But once again, House Democrats stood strong, stood united, and defeated Republicans’ worst impulses,” she added.

The package passed the lower chamber with 366-34-1 support with all but one Democrat backing the bill alongside 170 Republicans.

“Let’s be clear about what happened this week. On orders from the world’s richest man, Republicans tore up their own bipartisan agreement then needlessly threw the country into days of uncertainty during the holiday season,” Clark said in reference to tech billionaire Elon Musk, who staunchly opposed the original bipartisan spending deal.

“This is a stark preview of the next two years of Republican-controlled government,” she added. “No spine. No courage. Just deference to billionaires.”

Clark speculated that Musk will play a role in slashing Social Security, but that Democrats in the House will pushback during the next Congress.

“We already know Elon’s next directive: Break your campaign promises, cut $2.5 trillion from Social Security and Medicare, then use it to lower his taxes,” she said in a statement. “House Democrats will continue to stand with working families. We’re going to keep fighting back in the new Congress. We will not allow the pawns of the ultra-wealthy to dismantle the hopes of the American people.”

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) slammed the government funding bill that cleared the House with bipartisan support on Friday, arguing the GOP “got played” and the legislation is simply a “continuation of bad spending policies.”

“It’s just a CR; it’s just a continuation of bad spending policies that [Sen. Chuck] Schumer [D-N.Y.] and [Rep. Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif]. And the odd thing is, they got on the floor and said they were going to be against it. The Democrats were going to be against it, and a huge number voted for it. I’m not sure any of them even voted against it,” Burchett said in a video he posted Friday on social platform X following the vote on the floor.

“And then, of course, all the Republicans jumped in. I just felt like we got played,” he added. “It just doesn’t make any sense with them trashing it, and then all voting for it. Makes you feel like something went wrong.”

The modified package to keep the government funded passed with a 366-34-1 vote, easily leaping over the two-thirds threshold that was necessary as it was brought under the suspension of the rules.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, expressed uncertainty about next steps for the RFK Stadium after it was stripped out of the stopgap plan.

“Again, it was the one thing that actually saved money on the CR so, I don’t know, we’ll, reintroduce it, I guess,” he said. “I guess if the Senate could still pass it.”

The initial, scrapped bipartisan funding deal included a provision that transfers jurisdiction of the site of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus, the defunct venue in the northeast part of the city, from the federal government to the city of D.C. for 99 years.

The move would have paved the way for the Washington Commanders to return to D.C.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he had been in “constant contact” with President-elect Trump throughout the funding negotiations.

“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,” Johnson said.

The Speaker said he also spoke with Elon Musk.

“We talked about the extraordinary challenges of this job,” Johnson said. “And I said, ‘hey, you want to speak for the House?’ He said, ‘this may be the hardest job in the world.’ I think it is, but we’re going to get through this.”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) lauded the bill the House passed moments earlier and said it was a “bridge” to when President-elect Trump and Republicans take control of Washington.

“It funds the government, of course, until March of 2025. That was a big priority for us,” he said.

“This is ‘America First’ legislation because it allows us to be set up to deliver for the American people. In January, we will make a sea change in Washington. President Trump will return to D.C. and to the White House, and we will have Republican control of the Senate and the House. Things are going to be very different around here. This was a necessary step to bridge the gap, to put us into that, that moment where we can put our fingerprints on the final decisions on spending for 2025.”

Retiring Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said she will announce if she will opt to run for mayor of Oakland early next month.

“The decision to run for Mayor of Oakland, a city that I have long called home, is not one I take lightly,” Lee said in a Friday post on social platform X. “As my time in Congress wraps up, my current priority is navigating the crisis before us in DC. I am working around the clock to reach a deal that will keep our government open and provide critical resources for my district.”

“I will announce my intentions in early January,” she added.

She chose not to run for reelection this year in an effort to succeed the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) in the higher chamber. Lee’s colleague in Congress, former Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), won the seat.

Lee’s remarks come as a group of businessmen, labor leaders and elected officials penned a letter Thursday, urging the long-time House lawmaker to run for the seat as the city is set to hold a special election in mid-April.

The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee accused Elon Musk of tanking a bipartisan spending bill because it included a provision that could limit his businesses’ ability to operate in China.

In a Friday letter to congressional leaders, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) claimed Musk derailed the deal that would have avoided a government shutdown “in order to protect his wallet and the Chinese Communist Party at the expense of American workers, innovators and businesses.”

The spending agreement released Tuesday included a bipartisan provision to limit and screen U.S. investments in China, among dozens of other proposals attached to the 1,500-page bill.

As the CEO and largest stockholder in Tesla, Musk has extensive business connections to China.

President Biden supports the stopgap funding bill passed by the House, the White House said in a statement.

“While it does not include everything we sought, it includes disaster relief that the President requested for the communities recovering from the storm, eliminates the accelerated pathway to a tax cut for billionaires, and would ensure that the government can continue to operate at full capacity,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

“President Biden supports moving this legislation forward and ensuring that the vital services the government provides for hardworking Americans — from issuing Social Security checks to processing benefits for veterans — can continue as well as to grant assistance for communities that were impacted by devastating hurricanes.”

The government funding stopgap passed the House on a 366-34-1 vote.

All Democrats except one — Rep. Jasmine Crockett (Texas), who voted present — voted yes.

On the Republican side, 170 voted yes and 34 opposed the measure.

The House approved legislation to avert a government shutdown hours before the deadline Friday, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration after a whirlwind week on Capitol Hill.

The chamber voted 366-34-1 in support of the legislation, clearing the two-thirds threshold needed for passage, since GOP leadership brought the bill to the floor under the fast-track suspension of the rules process.

Read the full story here.

The House is now voting on a bill to fund the government through March.

The legislation also includes funds for disaster aid and economic assistance for famers.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said he would once again vote against the spending bill as the government shutdown deadline looms.

“On this third ‘funding’ CR – progress having been made on future cuts/debt ceiling notwithstanding – I must vote no,” he wrote Friday on social platform X. “$110bb unpaid-for, extension of food stamps with no reform, gimmicks to pay for health extenders, breaks 72 hour rule… More of the same.”

After Roy said he would not support the second version of the spending bill released earlier this week, President-elect Trump threatened to find a primary challenger to run against him in Texas.

“The very unpopular ‘Congressman’ from Texas, Chip Roy, is getting in the way, as usual, of having yet another Great Republican Victory — All for the sake of some cheap publicity for himself. Republican obstructionists have to be done away with,” Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday.

The House has begun debate on the latest version of the government funding bill.

A vote will follow the debate, and if the bill passes it will head to the Senate.

Text of a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through March has been released.

In addition to government funding, the measure provides billions of dollars for disaster aid and economic assistance for farmers.

The House is poised to vote this evening.

Elon Musk is casting doubt on the government funding plan GOP leaders announced this afternoon.

“So is this a Republican bill or a Democrat bill?” he posted on X.

Responding to a post saying, “Americans deserve leaders who actually represent them,” Musk wrote, “Absolutely.”

Musk fired off around 100 posts on Tuesday that helped sink a bipartisan government funding stopgap, leaving Congress scrambling for a solution.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) maintained his position on Friday afternoon that he plans to vote against Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for the leadership role next month.

“We’re legislating by Braille here,” Massie said. “I think this wasn’t handled well, and then I still have all the grievances from last at the beginning of this year, FISA, Ukraine, all of those things. I think there’s going to be a reckoning eventually.”

His comments came after GOP leadership briefed Republicans on the party’s plan to avert a shutdown this weekend.

Massie said he will “not vote for this deal.”

“I would have voted for a clean [continuing resolution] if they had separated the votes, but this isn’t a clean CR, so no, I’m not gonna vote for it,” Massie said, referring to his previous pitch for them to split some of the major contents of the original bipartisan funding plan into separate bills.

The House on Friday will make another attempt at passing legislation to avert a government shutdown, staging a vote on a revamped spending proposal that excludes the debt limit hike initially demanded by President-elect Trump, three sources told The Hill.

The package would fund the government at current levels through March 14, extend the farm bill by one year and appropriate billions of dollars in disaster aid and assistance for farmers — the same provisions that were in Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) plan B proposal that failed on the House floor Thursday night.

But in a departure from that measure, Friday’s bill will not include language to raise the debt limit after Democrats and a handful of Republicans came out against the provision — despite Trump initially demanding that such language be included.

READ MORE HERE.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday claimed he will fund moderate primary challenges to incumbent Democrats in heavy-blue districts around the country.

“Oh … forgot to mention that I’m also going to be funding moderate candidates in heavily Democrat districts, so that the country can get rid of those who don’t represent them, like this jacka‑‑,” Musk wrote Thursday night on his social media platform X.

The ally of President-elect Trump made the comments in response to a clip of a floor speech from Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, who slammed Musk’s threat to primary Republicans if they supported an earlier bipartisan spending proposal this week.

“Can you image what the next two years are going to be like if every time that Congress works its will and then there’s a Tweet? Or from an individual who has no official portfolio, who threatens members on the Republican side with a primary and they succumb?” Neal said in a fiery floor speech Thursday night.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed the turmoil on Capitol Hill amid efforts to avoid a government shutdown Friday, dubbing Elon Musk a “billionaire man-child” after his successful calls to kill the initial bipartisan deal.

“How about the House add campaign finance reform to the CR so Republicans and Democrats alike can stop being so scared about what a billionaire man-child thinks before they vote on anything around here,” she wrote on the social media platform X, alluding to Musk.

The tech billionaire and staunch ally of President-elect Trump was one of the most vocal opponents to Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) funding plan unveiled Tuesday, which the incoming president effectively torpedoed when he came out against it Wednesday.

Ocasio-Cortez joins a handful of other Democrats and even Republicans that have questioned Musk’s influence within the GOP, highlighting the impact of his voice on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) lashed out at Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) Friday morning, saying he “dragged” President-elect Trump into conversations around the spending bill as the threat of a government shutdown looms.

“It’s an example of failure of leadership of Speaker Johnson,” Spartz told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo. “Speaker Johnson dragged President Trump into this circus.”

“He completely mishandled it. He didn’t work with Republicans,” she added.

Trump helped to tank the initial bipartisan spending bill, pushing hard for a debt ceiling extension — or for it to be eliminated — in order to receive his blessing on the proposal.

Read more here.

House Republicans are planning to bring up the plan B bill from last night, minus the debt limit, under suspension of the rules in as soon as an hour or two, members leaving the meeting say.

A House Republican told The Hill the “overwhelming consensus” in the room was in favor of bringing Thursday night’s bill back to the floor, minus the debt limit language, and try to pass it under suspension of the rules.

Democrats and a number of Republicans objected to the debt ceiling language in the bill, but it’s unclear if enough of those “no” votes would come on board to get to the needed two-thirds majority.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) suggested President-elect Trump would be “better off” letting the government shut down.

“I think that President Trump would be much better off to let the government close to let Biden sit there as a totally incompetent president presiding over a mess, and to go to the country and say to the country, ‘I am not going to be a president who sells you out. I need your help to convince the Congress to pass a good bill,'” Gingrich told Fox News’s Harris Faulkner on Friday.

“I think the country would respond,” Gingrich added.