After weeks of intense, last-minute talks, the US Congress passed a package to finance federal agencies into mid-March, preventing a government shutdown on Christmas morning.
Senators broke protocol to expedite the measure to a vote, pausing government shutdown preparations and sparing Christmas for over 800,000 workers who would otherwise be sent home without pay, even though the midnight deadline had already passed by minutes.
It’s encouraging that the bipartisan strategy ultimately won out. In a statement on the Senate floor, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stated, “It’s a good outcome for America and the American people.”
After the Democrats played a pivotal role in assisting the Republican majority in the House to pass the funding plan earlier in the day, there was little question that the measure would be approved because the Senate is controlled by the party.
There were concerns that the bickering over funds may continue into the following week, though, because senators frequently put off complicated legislation.
This would have resulted in the termination of non-essential operations, with up to 1.4 million additional people being forced to labour for no pay and up to 875,000 workers being placed on furlough.
Setting government budgets is a difficult issue for Congress because Republicans and Democrats are evenly split in both chambers.
Much of the drama this time was caused by President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming “efficiency czar,” tech billionaire Elon Musk, who interceded at the last minute to pressure Republicans to back out of a funding deal they had laboriously negotiated with Democrats.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was left at the last chance saloon after two additional attempts to reach a consensus failed. He spent a large portion of Friday with staffers trying to figure out how to keep government departments operating.
The government would have suspended non-essential operations if the finance bill had failed. Law enforcement and other essential service workers would have kept up their duties but would not have received compensation until government operations had resumed.
When millions of people are expected to visit, many parks, monuments, and national sites would have been closed.
In a measure that includes $110 billion in disaster help and financial support for farmers, lawmakers averted all that holiday season suffering by extending government funding until March 14.
It is identical to a package that was overwhelmingly defeated in a vote on Thursday, except for Trump’s demand that the nation’s self-imposed borrowing cap be suspended for two years.
Democrats have turned their attention to attacking Musk, the richest man in the world, for his influence over Republicans and his apparent hold over Trump. They have questioned how an unelected citizen can have such power.
After Musk blasted the original funding arrangement in a barrage of tweets on his social media site X, many of which were absurdly false, there is rising resentment even among Republicans over his meddling.
Georgia House Republican Rich McCormick told CNN that Elon Musk does not have a vote in Congress as of the last time he looked.
He will now exert pressure on us to do whatever he believes is best for him because he has power. However, 760,000 people voted for me because they believed that I would act in their best interests.
The approval of the financing package without Trump’s demands included showed that even his enormous power over Republicans in Congress has limitations since he had made it clear that he was prepared to see a shutdown if he did not get his way.
After the House approved the financing plan, Johnson told reporters that January, when Trump takes office again, would be a “sea change” in Washington, but he put a positive spin on the situation.
“We will have Republican control of the Senate and the House, and President Trump will return to Washington, DC, and the White House,” Johnson told reporters. “Everything around here is going to change drastically.”
