The U.S. Congress is racing against time to stop a partial government shutdown. As of Thursday, Congress has only two days left. President-elect Donald Trump has turned down a bipartisan plan meant to keep the government running. Instead, he wants Congress to deal with the debt ceiling before he takes office next month. Trump told his Republican colleagues in Congress to oppose a stopgap bill, which would keep the government funded after the deadline of midnight Friday. He warned that any Republicans who supported the bipartisan plan might face challenges from other party members in the 2026 elections.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders are working hard to find a new agreement that satisfies both their party and the Senate, where Democrats have a slight edge. If no agreement is reached, the government will shut down on Saturday, affecting things like air travel and law enforcement just before Christmas.
Trump also urged Congress to remove parts of the bipartisan deal that the Democrats support. His ally, Elon Musk, who is a billionaire and one of the richest people in the world, has been pushing Congress to reject the plan. The bipartisan deal would keep funding at its current level and give $100 billion for disaster relief and $10 billion for farming assistance, but it also proposed pay raises for lawmakers and a crackdown on hidden hotel fees.
Some members of Congress are worried. Representative Rosa DeLauro, a leading Democrat, criticized Republicans for listening to Musk, who is not an elected official. Meanwhile, Speaker Johnson mentioned that he had a productive meeting with other party leaders but didn’t share any details. The House has not yet agreed on the debt ceiling discussions.
Republicans are feeling restless, especially after the exit of their former leader, Kevin McCarthy. Some hardline Republicans, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, are even talking about potentially looking for new leadership.
The next steps are still not clear. Congress needs to work together to pass any new spending plan in both the House and Senate. This stopgap measure is important because Congress has not passed its regular budget for the new fiscal year starting on October 1. Social Security benefits, however, will continue automatically. For over 20 years, the U.S. government has spent more money than it takes in, which has caused the national debt to rise.
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