A spending bill backed by Donald Trump that would have averted a US government shutdown has failed in the US House of Representatives as dozens of Republicans defied the president-elect.
Trump had pressured those in the Republican party to back the package, which would increase spending and clear the way for a plan that would add trillions more to the federal government’s $36 trillion debt, but 38 members of the party refused to comply.
“I am absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go to the American people and say you think this is fiscally responsible,” said Republican Representative Chip Roy, who voted against the bill.
Democrats had criticised the bill as a cover for a budget-busting tax cut that would largely benefit wealthy backers such as Elon Musk, while saddling the country with trillions of dollars in additional debt.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters: “The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious. It’s laughable. Extreme Maga Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown.”
The vote has laid bare fault lines in Trump’s Republican Party that could surface again next year when they control the White House and both chambers of Congress.
It has also left the government with only one more day cobble together a new bill, with funding due to expire at midnight Friday.
If lawmakers fail to extend that deadline, the US government will begin a partial shutdown that would interrupt funding for everything from border enforcement to national parks and cut off paychecks for more than two million federal workers.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson provided no details when reporters asked him about next steps after the failed vote.
“We will come up with another solution,” he said.
The package failed by a vote of 174-235 just hours after it was hastily assembled by Republican leaders seeking to comply with Trump’s demands.
A prior bipartisan deal was scuttled after Trump and Elon Musk came out against it on Wednesday.
The bill that failed would have extended government funding into March and provided $100bn in disaster relief and suspended the debt.
Republicans dropped other elements that had been included in the original package, such as a pay raise for lawmakers and new rules for pharmacy benefit managers.
At Trump’s urging, the new version also would have suspended limits on the national debt for two years — a maneuver that would make it easier to pass the dramatic tax cuts he has promised.
Even if the bill had passed the House, it would have faced long odds in the Senate, which is currently controlled by Democrats. The White House said Democratic President Joe Biden did not support it.
Previous fights over the debt ceiling have spooked financial markets, as a US government default would send credit shocks around the world.
The limit has been suspended under an agreement that technically expires on 1 January, though lawmakers likely will not have to tackle the issue before the spring.
The last government shutdown took place in December 2018 and January 2019 during Trump’s first White House term.
With agencies
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