By Adam Pack via Daily Caller News Foundation | December 19, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump endorsed an agreement by House Republican leaders to fund the government through March 2025 and lift the debt ceiling until 2027.
Trump’s support for a House Republican spending bill to avert a government shutdown comes after his decision on Wednesday to tank Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s original stopgap funding bill, which was sharply criticized by the president-elect and Republican lawmakers over the inclusion of unrelated Democratic policy riders into the spending package.
The new 116-page stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), is a slimmed-down version of the former spending package, which totaled more than 1,500 pages. The new CR still includes a one-year extension of the farm bill and $110 billion in disaster aid for victims of Hurricanes Milton and Helene. Provisions in the former CR that gave lawmakers a pay raise, restricted U.S. outbound investment in China and allowed year-round E15 gasoline sales have been omitted from the new version. House GOP leadership also struck a one-year authorization for the Global Engagement Center, accused of censoring conservative speech, from the new spending agreement.
“SUCCESS in Washington! Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good Deal for the American People,” President-elect Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday. “The newly agreed to American Relief Act of 2024 will keep the Government open, fund our Great Farmers and others, and provide relief for those severely impacted by the devastating hurricanes. A VERY important piece, VITAL to the America First Agenda, was added as well – The date of the very unnecessary Debt Ceiling will be pushed out two years, to January 30, 2027. Now we can Make America Great Again, very quickly, which is what the People gave us a mandate to accomplish.
“All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country, and vote “YES” for this Bill, TONIGHT,” Trump added.
The House could vote as early as Thursday evening on the bill under suspension of the rules, which would require a two-thirds majority to pass the spending package and debt ceiling increase.
Several members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have pledged to vote against the new CR.
“More debt. More government. Increasing the Credit Card $4 trillion with ZERO spending restraint and cuts. HARD NO,” Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy wrote in a post on X.
House Democratic leaders appear to be whipping their members to oppose the new CR. House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters “the Trump-Musk-Johnson proposal is laughable.”
Adam Pack is a contributor to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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