President-elect Donald Trump stepped in to provide a path to potentially avoid a government shutdown, just 24 hours after a deal negotiated by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) collapsed.
Republicans from different ideological corners of the caucus shuffled down Capitol corridors, primarily between the Speaker’s suite and Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s (R-MN) office, trying to strike a deal throughout Thursday.
Johnson’s short-term continuing resolution with tens of billions of dollars in add-ons, multiple extensions and reauthorizations, and hundreds of pages of provisions maligned as handouts to Democrats and lobbyists, was heavily criticized by Republicans as its details emerged earlier in the week. The House website unveiled the text of the bill Tuesday evening.
By Wednesday afternoon, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance had stepped in to kill it.
Vance spent much of Wednesday evening in the Speaker’s office. Trump and Vance’s team, led by top congressional liaison James Braid, a former top Senate hand to Vance, took a significant role in Wednesday’s negotiations.
By late afternoon, a deal was reached.
The new spending deal includes a three-month clean extension of current spending levels, a one-year farm bill extension, $110 billion in disaster aid, and – as Trump requested – a two-year suspension of the debt limit until January 2027.
Most of the pork in the bill was stripped, much to the consternation of Washington’s lobbyists.
Trump endorsed the deal on Truth Social, praising Johnson.
Yet the deal’s path forward is uncertain.
Republicans will try to move the bill under suspension of the rules Thursday night, which requires two-thirds support on the House floor.
Not all Republicans will support the bill, including Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who Trump attacked on Truth Social Thursday. Objections from Roy and other conservatives center around increased spending without offsets in the bill.
The House Freedom Caucus met Thursday evening to discuss the deal.
Democrats are unlikely to rush to support the deal as well. House Democrats chanted “hell no” from inside their caucus meeting, according to multiple reports.
But the bill appears headed to the floor, which will be an accomplishment the prior continuing resolution could not meet. From there, more negotiations might be needed to get the bill across the finish line, but Republicans are in a much better situation than feared earlier Thursday.
Whatever passes the House must then go to the Senate. The deadline is Friday night at midnight.
Regardless of the vote’s outcome, rank-and-file Republicans are scratching their collective heads wondering why Johnson did not bring them – and Trump – into the discussions earlier.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
