U.S. House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., left, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., center, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., take part in a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 17, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Efforts to prevent a partial government shutdown from starting this weekend fell apart Wednesday when numerous Republicans, on and off Capitol Hill, expressed their frustration with the many extraneous provisions added to a short-term funding package.
Complicating the situation, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance posted on social media that he and President-elect Donald Trump believe Republicans should leverage the two days left before a shutdown to get Democrats to raise or suspend the debt limit.
The catch-all, year-end spending legislation released Tuesday would not only fund the government through March 14, but provide an extension of the agriculture and nutrition programs in the farm bill through Sept. 30. The 1,547-page package also holds tens of billions in emergency aid for communities recovering from natural disasters.
But it includes several sections that have angered far-right members of the Republican Party as well as Trump and his allies. They argue the extra provisions that don’t relate to essential programs should be scrapped, throwing a wrench in weeks of negotiations between the Republican House and Democratic Senate.
How a shutdown works
Congress must pass a short-term spending bill before midnight on Friday when the current stopgap spending bill expires, otherwise every single federal department and agency would be required to shut down.
That would mean federal employees categorized as exempt would have to work without pay and employees categorized as non-exempt would be furloughed.
Unlike the 35-day partial government shutdown that took place during Trump’s first administration, this shutdown would affect larger swaths of the federal government.
Congress had approved several of the full-year appropriations bills ahead of the 2018-2019 shutdown insulating the departments of Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Labor and Veterans Affairs.
Lawmakers had also approved the Legislative Branch spending bill, ensuring members of Congress and their staff were paid throughout the shutdown.
This time around, failing to pass some sort of stopgap spending bill ahead of the Friday midnight deadline would mean cutting off U.S. troops from pay, not to mention dozens of other national security agencies like Customs and Border Protection and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
It could also wreak havoc on the numerous federal departments and agencies assisting communities with response and recovery efforts stemming from natural disasters, including hurricanes Helene and Milton.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Agriculture and Small Business Administration would all be affected by a funding lapse, as would anyone who receives funding from those programs.
Debt limit
The debt limit was not part of the spending negotiations until Wednesday when Vance insisted it be included in any type of stopgap spending bill.
The current suspension of the debt limit is set to expire Jan. 1, but lawmakers will likely have a few months where the Treasury Department can use accounting maneuvers called extraordinary measures before the country would default.
Vance, however, doesn’t seem inclined to deal with the country’s borrowing authority next year.
“The most foolish and inept thing ever done by Congressional Republicans was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025,” Vance wrote in his social media post. “It was a mistake and is now something that must be addressed.”
Vance wrote that addressing “the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch.”
“If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration?” Vance wrote. “Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.”
Elon Musk, a billionaire whom Trump has tasked with trying to make the federal government more efficient through steep spending cuts, wrote on social media that no legislation should move through Congress until Jan. 20, after Trump’s inauguration.
That would create havoc for hundreds of government programs, including the agriculture and nutrition assistance programs within the farm bill.
“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!,” Musk wrote.
While every member of the House who chooses to run for reelection will campaign during the 2026 midterm elections, just one-third of the Senate will be up for reelection since they are elected to six-year terms.
North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis posted on social media that any short-term spending bill, sometimes called a continuing resolution or CR, must carry disaster aid to help his home state recover from a devastating hurricane.
“If Congressional leaders intend to leave DC before the holidays without passing disaster recovery, they should be prepared to spend Christmas in the Capitol,” Tillis wrote. “I’ll use every tool available to block a CR that fails Western North Carolina communities in need of long-term certainty.”
West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said during a brief interview she wants to see disaster aid remain in a stopgap spending bill.
“I went down and saw the Asheville disaster,” she said “I think we need to get the disaster aid to those affected areas, some of which are in West Virginia, believe it or not.”