Congress is racing toward a shutdown at the end of the day Friday, and Republicans appear no closer to finding a path forward that will keep the lights on and appease President-elect Trump.
The latest setback roiled the House on Thursday evening, when Democrats and a band of Republicans rejected a bill that paired a three-month government funding extension, $110 billion in disaster and farm aid and other measures with a two-year suspension of the debt limit — the latter of which was a last-minute demand by Trump.
That plan B was cobbled together after GOP lawmakers, Trump and Elon Musk torpedoed the first deal Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) negotiated with Democrats, with the influential Republicans criticizing the policy add-ons included — like a health care policy deal and cost of living raise for members of Congress — that ballooned the legislation to over 1,500 pages.
With Johnson’s first two proposals up in flames, Republicans are unsure where to turn.
“There’s no plan,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said after the plan B vote failed, adding: “Trump wants the thing to shut down.”
Johnson told reporters Thursday night, shortly after the failed vote, that Republicans would “regroup” and “come up with another solution,” adding “stay tuned.”
But Republicans, who are eager to stay on the incoming president’s good side, and Johnson, trying to keep his grasp on the gavel come next year, are struggling to unify behind a plan.
Trump’s last-minute debt limit increase demand is opposed by many Republicans — 38 of whom joined with Democrats to tank the plan B bill on Thursday. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Republicans are not currently planning to try to bring the bill up through a longer regular rule process, which would require near-unified GOP support for passage.
Beyond the struggles in the House, any bill would have to not only pass the GOP-controlled House but get approval from Democratic-controlled Senate and White House, which are rejecting the last-minute GOP changes.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) kept his posture steady even following the vote, indicating he was in no mood for negotiating further after Johnson reneged on their original accord.
“It's a good thing the bill failed in the House,” Schumer told reporters. “And now it's time to go back to the bipartisan agreement.”
Senators voting on an unrelated bill across the Capitol complex as the latest stopgap measure was going up in smoke were unsure where negotiations will go from here with the clock ticking down toward a shutdown and a likely pre-Christmas weekend session.
“I guess it’s back to the drawing board,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) told The Hill as he exited the Capitol. “We’ll see. We’ll figure out in the House what they want to do next, and they’ll digest this last effort and see what Plan B is.”
“We have to be able to figure out a path forward,” the incoming majority leader continued. “We’re little over 24 hours away from a shutdown, so it’s going to have to happen quickly, but we’ll figure it out.”
With little direction, members were throwing out ideas that could potentially stick. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) predicted a three-week “clean” continuing resolution without a hike in the debt limit could be the next course of action. He, however, acknowledged that he is “labor, not management.”
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), the top Senate GOP appropriator, told reporters she would back a multi-week continuing resolution that would help get members through the holiday season, but conceded that she is unsure where negotiators will go next with the hourglass running out.
"I don't know what the plan is now," she said, adding that the inclusion of a debt ceiling increase “seems to have aggravated the Democrats.”
”My number one goal is to prevent a government shutdown,” she added.
The reaction was similar on the House side, where Republicans floated various ideas with no off-ramp in sight.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), for example, told reporters after Thursday’s failed vote that he pitched Johnson on splitting the stopgap package into four separate bills: A clean continuing resolution, disaster aid, the farm bill extension and the debt limit suspension, passing them under one procedural rule then voting on each one individually.
Massie said he pitched Johnson on the idea and that “it wasn’t rejected outright.”
It’s also unclear if Trump would support that. Massie said that Trump’s team initially asked for a five-year extension of the debt limit, so it would not come up again during his presidential term.
Another idea brought up to Johnson was to add spending cuts to the bill to offset the unpaid disaster and farm aid spending, one source said, as a means of trying to woo hardline conservatives to support the bill.
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), the chairman of the self-proclaimed pragmatic Main Street Caucus, said he “suggested a number” of ideas to Johnson, but would not divulge specifics.
Another House Republican predicted to The Hill that Republicans would move to a “clean” continuing resolution next. Another GOP lawmaker, meanwhile, said the “rumor” in GOP circles is that the Senate will try to pass the initial proposal negotiated by congressional leaders in an attempt to “jam” the lower chamber.
Senate Republicans are balking at that idea — but not ruling it out.
Collins, the top Senate GOP appropriator, told reporters that a bill originating from the Senate is not the "preferred way to proceed," but is something she could potentially foresee amid the ongoing troubles.
"I don't know what the plan is now," she said, adding that the inclusion of a debt ceiling increase "seems to have aggravated the Democrats."
Collins also said that she would be supportive of a short-term measure that would get lawmakers past the holiday season.
"Yes," she said about the possibility of a three-week "clean" bill. "My number one goal is to prevent a government shutdown."
As the clock ticks to Friday at 11:59 p.m., lawmakers are becoming acutely aware of the time crunch they face to craft a proposal that can muster bipartisan support, move it through the House and usher it through the Senate.
With time running out, Republicans are urging their colleagues to get down to business.
“At some point, let’s just put on our big boy, big girl pants, let’s understand that we got to get to 218 here and we got to get 60 over there,” Dusty Johnson said. “Ideas that don’t move us in that direction are not helpful.”
