Government shutdown updates: Biden signs funding bill, averting shutdown

Biden signed the stopgap measure on Saturday.

Last Updated: December 21, 2024, 11:31 AM EST

With a government shutdown narrowly avoided late Friday into Saturday morning, the House and Senate sent a funding bill to President Joe Biden's desk.

An initial bipartisan deal was tanked earlier this week by President-elect Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk. Then on Thursday night, the House failed to pass a revamped plan that included Trump's explosive demand that the debt limit be extended.

Under the proposal, the 118-page bill contains most of the provisions that were put in place in the bipartisan bill that was agreed to on Wednesday. The bill includes $100 billion for disaster aid, $30 billion for farmers and a one-year extension of the farm bill, provisions that were under heavy debate prior to this week's votes.

Dec 20, 2024, 8:06 AM EST

Johnson says he expects another vote Friday morning

Speaker Johnson told reporters that he expects the House will be voting again soon to try to avert a shutdown.

"Yeah we're expecting votes this morning, we've got a plan," he told reporters as he arrived on Capitol Hill.

When asked if there was a new agreement, he only replied: "We'll see."

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks to the media during a vote on a revised continuing resolution bill at Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 19, 2024.
Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images

-ABC News' Emily Chang

Dec 20, 2024, 4:54 AM EST

Trump says Congress should 'get rid of' or extend debt ceiling, or else not do a deal

President-elect Donald Trump, in an early morning post on his social media platform, said Congress should either "get rid of" or extend the debt ceiling, saying his position was that "without this, we should never make a deal."

The post, which came a little after 1 a.m., was published after the House failed to pass the government funding bill Trump supported.

The US Capitol is pictured ahead of a vote on a revised continuing resolution bill in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 19, 2024.
Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images

Trump added that the pressure is on the incumbent president, although he didn't mention President Joe Biden by name. He floated the year 2029 as a possibility for a new debt ceiling deadline.

-ABC News' Oren Oppenheim

Dec 19, 2024, 10:03 PM EST

Will House vote on another spending bill Friday?

House Speaker Mike Johnson departed the Capitol Thursday night and said "we'll see" when asked if the House will vote on another spending bill on Friday.

Earlier Thursday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said leaders will "keep working" and didn't specify what the next step would be.

"What exactly is in or out hasn't been decided," Scalise said.

Scalise blamed Democrats for voting down the bill Thursday, saying, "They want to try to shut it down."

Congress faces a deadline of midnight Friday to sort out funding or a government shutdown kicks in.

Dec 19, 2024, 10:03 PM EST

Musk blames Democrats for spending bill’s failure

In a series of posts Thursday night, Elon Musk blamed Democrats for the failure of the government funding plan that he pushed along with Trump.

“Shame on @RepJeffries for rejecting a fair & simple spending bill that is desperately needed by states suffering from hurricane damage!” Musk wrote.

President-elect Donald Trump stands with Elon Musk as they attend the NCAA college football game between Army and Navy at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., Dec. 14, 2024.
Stephanie Scarbrough/AP

In another, he wrote: “Objectively, the vast majority of Republican House members voted for the spending bill, but only 2 Democrats did. Therefore, if the government shuts down, it is obviously the fault of @RepJeffries and the Democratic Party. Plain & simple.”

Musk mounted a pressure campaign on House Republicans on Wednesday to vote against the bipartisan bill that Johnson intended to bring to the floor. On Thursday, 38 Republicans – most of them fiscal conservatives – voted against a stripped-down version that cut out add-ons to the spending plan but extended a suspension of the country’s debt limit.

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