The House on Thursday rejected a hastily produced plan to avert a shutdown by tying a government funding extension to a two-year suspension of the federal debt ceiling, as conservative Republicans defied President-elect Donald J. Trump’s orders to support it.
The vote sent Speaker Mike Johnson back to the drawing board ahead of a Friday night deadline to find a way to keep government funding flowing. Right-wing lawmakers balked at increasing the government’s borrowing limit.
They were joined by Democrats who savaged Republicans for reneging on a bipartisan spending deal and refused to back a plan they said would be used to finance extensive tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of working people.
The vote was 235 to 174, with one member voting “present.”
Even before the measure hit the House floor, it appeared doomed to fail. It was made public roughly two hours before the vote was held, and Mr. Johnson used a special procedure to fast-track it to a vote that required two-thirds of lawmakers voting in support to push it across the finish line. In the end, it did not come close to drawing even a simple majority.
Like the original bipartisan deal Mr. Johnson struck with Democrats, which Mr. Trump blew up on Wednesday in a hail of criticism, the bill would extend government funding at current levels through mid-March, and provide $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in direct payments to farmers. It would also extend the expiring farm bill for a year. The measure omits an array of other policy changes that had been included in the initial deal.
But by far the biggest change was the addition of a two-year suspension of the debt ceiling, a demand that Mr. Trump abruptly issued on Wednesday — two days before the shutdown deadline — and then insisted that Republicans include in any measure to keep government spending flowing.
The proposal was at odds with the stated position that many G.O.P. lawmakers have held for years — that they would never back an increase in the government’s borrowing limit without spending cuts to slow the growth of the national debt.
“You never have any ounce of self-respect,” Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas, said in heated remarks to his G.O.P. colleagues on the House floor. “To take this bill and congratulate yourself because it’s shorter in pages, but increases the debt by $5 trillion, is asinine.”
He added that he was “absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility” but was prepared to support legislation that would pave the way for so much more debt.
Mr. Johnson’s original plan to avert a shutdown imploded on Wednesday amid a backlash by G.O.P. lawmakers that was fueled by Elon Musk, who spent much of the day trashing the measure on social media and threatening the political future of any Republican who supported it. Mr. Trump later joined in with his debt limit demand, saying he would rather raise it while President Biden is still in office than be responsible for doing so next year after he takes office and Republicans are in full control of Congress.
Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, tore into Republicans for rejecting the deal Mr. Johnson negotiated with her party, arguing that G.O.P. leaders had caved to Mr. Musk.
“We must unequivocally reject the illegitimate oligarchy that seeks to usurp the authority of the United States Congress and of the American people,” Ms. DeLauro said.
Congress must clear a funding extension and Mr. Biden must sign it before 12:01 a.m. Saturday to prevent a lapse in government operations.
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