WASHINGTON — Less than a day after Congressional leadership came to a bipartisan agreement on a new stopgap spending bill, or continuing resolution, that included farm aid and disaster relief, the agreement is dead in the water.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) told reporters the spending bill unveiled Tuesday night is dead and there is not yet a new agreement.
Shortly after the text of the bill was released Tuesday night, Elon Musk, a close adviser of President-elect Donald Trump, shared his criticisms of the bill on X.
“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years,” Musk wrote on X.
After Musk’s flurry of posts against the spending bill, President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance weighed in. In a joint statement posted on X by Vance, the pair rejected the spending bill.
Vance later told reporters on Capitol Hill that Trump wants a clean spending bill that includes increasing the debt limit.
“Sounds like the ridiculous and extraordinarily expensive Continuing Resolution, PLUS, is dying fast, but can anyone imagine passing it without either terminating or extending, the Debt Ceiling guillotine coming up in June,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
In a separate post, Trump called Republicans supporting Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-Louisiana) original bill, and who are unwilling to pass a debt ceiling increase, during the end of President Joe Biden’s administration, “stupid” and said they would be primaried–challenged in 2026 GOP primaries.
Following the backlash, POLITICO reported that Johnson and Republican House Leadership are discussing proposing a clean bill.
Why it matters: Congress passed a stopgap spending bill in September, that bill is set to expire Friday night. To craft an agreeable bill in time, Johnson and House leadership will likely have to cut critical additions.
- If a new spending bill is not passed, the Government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday. Lawmakers have less than 72 hours to negotiate a new bill.
- Disaster aid–including $20 billion for farmers–could be off the table.
- $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers due to market losses and an extension of the 2018 farm bill may also be cut from the end-of-the-year spending bill.
Backlash and budding rebellion: Lawmakers have called Johnson out for reneging on the bipartisan, bicameral agreement to continue federal funding until March 14.
- House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson (R-Pennsylvania) said he would not support a spending bill that does not include assistance for farmers and an extension of the farm bill.
- Leaving disaster relief out of the spending bill could lead to Republican opposition in the Senate. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) and Sen. Ted Budd (R-North Carolina) both wrote on X that they would not support a spending bill that lacks disaster relief.
- House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) has suggested Democrats will oppose a clean spending bill. “You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow,” Jeffries wrote on X.
History repeating itself: Johnson’s gavel could be in peril during January’s Speaker of the House election.
- Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) has said he will oppose Johnson.
- Rich McCormick (R-Georgia) said there may be serious debates on who should hold the gavel.
- House Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Andy Harris (R-Maryland) told Punchbowl News that there is an increasing number of lawmakers reconsidering their support of Johnson.
Kevin Eagleson is reporting from Gaylord News’ Washington bureau this fall as part of an OU Daily scholarship.
Gaylord News is a reporting project of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. For more stories by Gaylord News go to GaylordNews.net
