The House of Representatives approved a government spending bill with only a few hours left to spare before a crucial midnight deadline that would have shut down the government before Christmas.
House members voted 366-34. One member voted present. All 34 votes were Republicans.
Friday’s vote sends the measure to the Senate, where it is expected to pass.
A bill to fund the government through mid-March marked a third attempt within two days to avert a shutdown, after Donald Trump and Elon Musk commanded Congress to ditch the original bipartisan framework and left congressional Democrats and even some Republicans exhausted with the growing political influence of the world’s wealthiest person.
The funding battle glimpsed how Democrats are approaching the incoming Trump-Musk administration and how they will navigate Trump’s agenda with an extremely slim Republican majority.
Here, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries forced Republicans to fight among themselves. Republicans were openly calling for a shutdown, then whipped to accept a new deal under House Speaker Mike Johnson, while leaving out Trump’s central demand to abolish the debt ceiling.
Johnson told reporters Friday he was “in constant contact” with Trump and spoke with Musk an hour before the vote.
“He knew exactly what we were doing and why, and this is a good outcome for the country,” he said of his conversations with Trump.
A government shutdown would have stalled paychecks for US military service members, forced federal agencies to close, furloughed workers just before Christmas, and threatened critical services and benefits.
The president-elect had also hoped to include an agreement that would scrap the debt ceiling in an effort to grease the wheels for major items on his agenda, including massive tax cuts that would explode the deficit and a mass deportation operation that could cost billions of dollars and deal an enormous blow to the economy.
A slimmer 118-page measure covers a bulk of government funding, disaster relief and payments to farmers — but the bill removed measures supporting pediatric cancer research, funding for community health centers, and prescription drug reform, among other measures.
The bill also removes restrictions on investments in China. Democratic congresswoman Rose DeLauro — the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee — warned congressional leadership that removing the provision calls into question Musk’s extensive investments in China while he is working closely with the incoming administration.
“It is extremely alarming that House Republican leadership, at the urging of an unelected billionaire, scrapped a bipartisan, bicameral negotiated funding deal that included this critical provision to protect American jobs and critical capabilities,” she wrote.
Musk spent Friday making fun of her appearance to his millions of followers on X, comparing her to a “skeksis” from The Dark Crystal franchise, and inspiring a flood of harassing messages and AI-generated memes about the 81-year-old congresswoman.
