House rejects Trump-backed plan on government shutdown, leaving next steps uncertain

1 of 6 | 

Ben Phillips, left, and his wife Becca Phillips scrape mud out of their living room in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Marshall, N.C., Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

Read More

2 of 6 | 

Reluctance, Stryten Energy’s modified concept Jeep, can go where other vehicles can’t, bringing power to remote terrain for off-grid adventures or providing disaster relief to weather-impacted areas with emergency power resources. (Photo: Business Wire)

Read More

3 of 6 | 

As Hurricane Milton approaches, a car sits half-buried in sand in Bradenton Beach, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

Read More

4 of 6 | 

Homes consumed in wildfires are seen in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, Aug. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Read More

5 of 6 | 

Maui Mayor Richard Bissen looks on during a media tour on Front Street, showing recovery efforts after 2023’s wildfire, June 26, 2024, in Lahaina, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Mengshin Lin, File)

Read More

6 of 6 | 

Michael Vierra looks at his house after it was destroyed by a wildfire, in Lahaina, Hawaii, Sept. 26, 2023. Authorities in Maui strongly encouraged homeowners to wear protective gear provided by nonprofit groups when visiting their properties to protect against asbestos, lead and other toxic remains of the wildfire. (AP Photo/Mengshin Lin, File)

Read More

American farmers, small business owners and wildfire survivors are among those who will suffer if Congress cannot agree on a new spending bill after Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan that included more than $100 billion in disaster aid.

Here’s a look at some of the people closely watching what Congress does next:

• Asheville Tea Co. founder and CEO Jessie Dean is waiting to see if North Carolina will get support after Hurricane Helene and Milton slammed into the state one after another, causing an estimated $60 billion in damage. The company’s building was washed away along with all its equipment and inventory. The earlier version of the spending bill included funding for low-interest loans for businesses, nonprofits and homeowners trying to rebuild after a disaster.
• Georgia pecan farmer Scott Hudson isn’t sure if he can farm much longer without federal assistance. The earlier spending bill included a provision that would’ve allocated $21 billion in disaster aid to those who lost crops in the hurricanes. “Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, the farmers need this money,” he said. “American ag needs this money ... not to be profitable, to just stay in business.”
• Maui Mayor Richard Bissenis says a potential allocation of $1.6 billion in the original bill would’ve been critical to ongoing disaster recovery from the 2023 Maui fire, the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.

▶ Read more about the Americans hoping for disaster relief

House Speaker Mike Johnson left the Capitol late Thursday with only two words on a path forward for funding the government: “We’ll see,” he replied when asked whether House Republicans would try for another budget bill package in the morning.

Friday is lawmakers’ final day to approve a new federal budget before a government shutdown would begin.

Coming and going outside Speaker Mike Johnson’s office Thursday night, House Republicans offered little clarity on a path forward for a budget deal after a Trump-endorsed proposal failed to pass.

Rep. Kat Cammack, a Republican who voted against the bill, told reporters that “this was not an easy vote for constitutional conservatives.” She added, “we’re going to work through the night and figure out a plan.”

“We are still working diligently. and we are still making progress,” Rep. Lisa McClain said, without offering further details.

“We tried several things today most of our members went for, but the Democrats decided that they want to try and shut it down, but we’re going to keep working,” Rep. Steve Scalise, the Republican majority leader, told reporters.

Vice President Kamala Harris cancelled a planned trip to Los Angeles with Washington on the verge of a government shutdown.

She had been scheduled to travel to her home state late Thursday, but instead will remain in the capital, the White House said, after Republicans backed away from a bipartisan compromise to fund the government.

JD Vance told reporters on Capitol Hill that Democrats voted against the legislation Thursday to avoid a government shutdown “because they didn’t want to give the president negotiating leverage during the first year of his new term.”

The incoming vice president did not mention the 38 Republicans who voted against the bill, denying Republican Speaker Mike Johnson a victory as he has tried to appease Trump’s last-minute demands on the debt limit. Trump endorsed the bill shortly before the vote.

“They’ve asked for a shutdown,” Vance said of Democrats. “That’s exactly what they’re going to get.”

Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a battle over the budget — and perhaps his reputation.

A poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are better known and more popular than the GOP speaker, especially among Republicans, and that there could be room for opinions to shift.

Relatively few Americans have a favorable opinion of Johnson, and many do not know enough about him to have an opinion. That includes Republicans across the country: Nearly half have not formed a view, according to the December poll.

About 2 in 10 Americans have a very or somewhat favorable opinion of Johnson, and roughly one-third have a very or somewhat unfavorable view of him. About 4 in 10 adults don’t know enough about Johnson.

Among Republicans, about 4 in 10 have a positive view of Johnson while about 1 in 10 have a negative view.

As for Democrats, about 6 in 10 dislike him while about 1 in 10 have a positive view.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat, raised questions over Elon Musk’s massive investments in China after one of her priorities to restrict U.S. investments going to China was abandoned.

The measure was intended to prevent U.S. money from bolstering Chinese military capabilities and advancing its critical technologies. “He clearly does not want to have to answer any questions about how much he plans to expand his business in China, and how many American technologies he plans to sell to the highest bidder,” DeLauro said in a post on X.

The Democratic lawmaker said the U.S. policy should not be set on behalf of “billionaires cozying up to Communist China.”

Minutes after Republicans’ plan to avert a shutdown and raise the debt ceiling failed in the House, congressional leaders regrouped to consider what to do next.

Rep. Steve Scalise, the House Republican leader, said they wouldn’t try to bring the bill back to the floor.

Meanwhile, Rep. Chip Roy, who spearheaded Republican opposition to the bill, was defiant outside the chamber.

“I’m ambitious to make sure that we actually cut spending. I’m ambitious to do what we said we would do,” he told reporters.

On the opposite side of the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said: “It’s a good thing the bill failed in the House, now it’s time to go back to the bipartisan agreement we came to.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans “are not serious about helping working-class Americans,” adding, “They are simply doing the bidding of their wealthy donors and puppeteers. Unacceptable.”

The House rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan Thursday to fund federal operations and suspend the debt ceiling a day before a government shutdown, as Democrats refused to accommodate his sudden demands and the quick fix cobbled together by Republican leaders.

In a hastily convened evening vote punctuated by angry outbursts over the self-made crisis, the lawmakers failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage — but House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared determined to try again before Friday’s midnight deadline.

“We’re going to do the right thing here,” Johnson said ahead of the vote. But he didn’t even get a majority, with the bill failing 174-235.

The outcome proved a massive setback for Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk, who rampaged against Johnson’s bipartisan compromise, which Republicans and Democrats had reached earlier to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown.

In the first major flex of his influence since Trump was elected, Elon Musk brought the original bipartisan budget proposal to a halt by posting constantly on his X megaphone and threatening Republicans with primary challenges.

The social media warnings from the world’s wealthiest man preceded Trump’s own condemnation of the measure negotiated by GOP House Speaker Johnson.

Before the new deal was reached, Congressional Democrats mocked their GOP counterparts, with several suggesting Trump had been relegated to vice president.

“Welcome to the Elon Musk presidency,” Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California wrote on X.

What was clear, though, is Musk’s ascendance as a political force, a level of influence enabled by his great wealth.

▶ Read more about Musk’s influence over the Republican Party

The White House said President Joe Biden opposes the House Republican spending bill, saying, “Republicans are doing the bidding of their billionaire benefactors at the expense of hardworking Americans.”

“Republicans are breaking their word to support a bipartisan agreement that would lower prescription drug costs and make it harder to offshore jobs to China — and instead putting forward a bill that paves the way for tax breaks for billionaires while cutting critical programs working families count on, from Social Security to Head Start,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

She added: “President Biden supports the bipartisan agreement to keep the government open, help communities recovering from disasters, and lower costs — not this giveaway for billionaires that Republicans are proposing at the 11th hour.”

“That is the exact opposite of standing up to the establishment,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a post on the social platform X.

“The @HouseGOP is suddenly throwing out historic investments to fight pediatric cancer, including new requirements on Pharma — the Give Kids a Chance Act. Why? Because the richest man in the world had a whim.”

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans backed away from a bipartisan effort and accused them of engaging in an effort to shut down the government unless lawmakers “bend to the will of just a handful of millionaires and billionaires.”

Jeffries said Donald Trump’s intervention is focused on bringing a massive tax cut for the wealthy “who clearly some in this Congress are working for.”

Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., shot back that “if a shutdown occurs because we do not pass this continuing resolution today, it will not be a Republican shutdown, it will be a Democratic shutdown. And when it goes over the Senate, it will be the Schumer shutdown.”

The debate in the House chamber grew rowdy with cheers and reactions rising from the Democrats’ side.

At one point, Rep. Marc Molinaro, who was presiding over the debate, slammed the speaker’s gavel with such force that it broke.

Democrats also gave time to Republican Rep. Chip Roy to make a point against the bill.

“You never have any ounce of self respect,” Roy told his fellow Republicans, saying they were unwilling to deliver on campaign promises to balance the budget and reduce the federal deficit.

House Republican leadership’s plan to avert a government shutdown and suspend the nation’s debt ceiling is quickly losing support from their own ranks.

Rep. Rich McCormick, a Georgia Republican, said he is a “hard no” on the bill and he knows of at least 10 other Republican lawmakers who are strongly against it.

If Democrats do not support the bill, Republicans can only lose votes from a few members with their thin majority.

McCormick said he wants to see deeper budget cuts before agreeing to raising the debt ceiling: “I’m for lifting the debt ceiling, but I’m not going to lift it without getting something conservative back.”

House Democrats emerged from an hourlong private meeting more determined to oppose the new plan Republicans will be bringing to the House floor in the next hour. Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ message to his members was not no, it was “Hell no,” according to several lawmakers.

Many were frustrated at the process by which their colleagues across the aisle went about the latest negotiations, saying that not including Democrats over the last 12 hours was a mistake.

“There was not even a phone call,” said Rep. Mark Takano, the top Democrat on the Veterans Affairs Committee.

A former member of leadership, Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, called out Republicans for demanding three days to review bills all session but pushing this latest proposal out in an hour.

“There was no discussion. This was a take-it-or-leave-it deal,” he told reporters. “You know their obsession with the 72-hour rule? This is the 72-second rule.”

The new House Republican bill to avoid a partial government shutdown no longer includes several provisions that had been sought by members of both parties, such as an effort to criminalize the creation of fake pornographic images through the use of artificial intelligence and another requiring greater oversight and price transparency from pharmacy benefit managers.

Also out is a provision that would transfer control of the land that includes old RFK Stadium from the federal government to the District of Columbia. The transfer was championed by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and would pave the way for the Commanders to potentially build a new stadium in the franchise’s old home. Misinformation amplified online claimed that the bill included $3 billion for a new football stadium, helping to scuttle the measure.

A provision to transfer the land that is the site of the old RFK Stadium from the federal government to the District of Columbia is no longer included in the slimmed-down short-term spending bill.

The removal is a loss for the NFL’s Commanders, who were hoping to have the land available as an option to build a new stadium. Controlling owner Josh Harris and Commissioner Roger Goodell lobbied for its inclusion earlier this month.

The initial package included the RFK Stadium land remaining in District control for 99 years.

The Commanders are considering places in D.C., Maryland and Virginia to build a stadium in the coming years. Their lease at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, runs through 2027.

The team played at RFK, 2 miles east of the Capitol, from 1961 to 1996 before moving to Maryland.

“I think if Democrats don’t want the government to shut down, they better play ball,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla.

The effort to put the onus on Democrats comes after President-elect Donald Trump blew up a bipartisan stopgap spending proposal. Now they’re trying to shift blame to the Democrats if the second one falters.

“This is a clean, slim CR that provides disaster assistance and assistance for farmers, and it extends the debt suspension so that the next administration can begin to work come the new year,” said Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y. “It’s exactly what we should pass. and there’s no excuse not to unless you want to shut the government down.”

House Republicans have released a slimmed-down 116-page bill to keep the government running and provide disaster relief that will be voted on later Thursday.

It continues to fund federal agencies through March 14. It also keeps the $100 billion in disaster aid for victims of Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters.

It also maintains $10 billion in economic assistance for row crop farmers struggling with high input costs and low commodity prices.

It adds one important provision Trump says he needs: It suspends the nation’s debt limit from Jan. 1 of next year to Jan. 30, 2027.

But it removes some of the provisions that drew intense scrutiny after the original package was released, most notably the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009.

Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the new Trump-backed plan “laughable.”

“It’s not a serious proposal,” the New York lawmaker told reporters walking into a caucus meeting.

Despite what appears to be a breakthrough for Republicans, Democrats seemed unmoved in their opposition to any plan outside of what was negotiated by both sides earlier this week.

Rep. Annie Kuster, chair of one of the largest Democratic caucuses, said that she couldn’t see herself supporting the deal but she was open to hearing what party leaders were going to say.

“Elon Musk is not my constituent. My constituents are hard working people who work very hard every day for every dime they had,” the New Hampshire lawmaker said. “I’m sure as hell not bailing out on them in the final week.”

The president-elect announced that there is a new plan to fund the government and lift the debt ceiling a day before a government shutdown, urging Congress to swiftly pass it in votes as soon as Thursday evening.

Trump’s social media post landed as Republicans said they had narrowed on a tentative accord after grueling closed-door talks. The new plan would keep the government running for three more months, add disaster assistance for hurricane-hit states and others, and allow more borrowing through Jan. 30, 2027, Republicans said.

“SUCCESS in Washington! Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good Deal,” Trump posted.

The next steps are highly uncertain, and it was particularly unclear if Democrats, whose votes would certainly be needed on any package in the face of hardline Republican opposition from conservatives were on board — or were even brought into any negotiations.

The 11th hour scramble. Legislating via social media. Threats of ousting congressional leaders. These are all a preview of what’s to come when Republicans control Congress and Donald Trump is in the White House, said one senior GOP Republican.

Rep. Steve Womack, an Arkansas Republican and senior appropriator, said the collapse of a bipartisan stopgap funding deal this week would “probably be a good trailer right now for the 119th Congress.”

“Stay tuned. Buckle up. Strap in. This is going to be an interesting Congress to watch,” he added.

Womack called Wednesday’s social media posts from Trump and Elon Musk a “gut shot” to House Speaker Mike Johnson that “just absolutely eviscerated that plan.”

He also faulted Republican leadership for not reading Trump’s team into the details of the deal, saying he should have made sure he had Trump’s “blessing” before proceeding.

A key Republican who has been part of the negotiations over a new government funding package says Republicans are moving forward with a new plan.

“We have an agreement and I expect a vote tonight,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee that deals with federal spending.

Cole provided no further details on what the deal entails or whether Democrats were consulted.

Republicans have been huddled in Speaker Mike Johnson’s office Thursday to discuss what to do after President-elect Donald Trump demanded that government funding be paired with an increase in the debt limit.

Shortly after Trump threatened to primary a fellow Republican for not agreeing to his debt limit demands, that congressman responded on the social platform X, saying that he has “no apologies” for his position on the issue.

Rep. Chip Roy said his position on raising the debt limit is “simple.”

“I am not going to raise or suspend the debt ceiling (racking up more debt) without significant & real spending cuts attached to it,” Roy said. “I’ve been negotiating to that end.”

Republican senators from North and South Carolina said no government funding bill would be acceptable to them without including relief for states devastated by natural disasters.

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina entered the meeting with a large stack of papers he said were messages from constituents pleading for aid after Hurricane Helene.

“When you’re in the middle of a crisis, I don’t think anybody’s going to want to hear somebody come to the floor, and talk about fiscal responsibility instead of getting these people a home again, or giving them an opportunity to open up a business again and employ people,” Tillis told reporters.

Tillis made clear he would filibuster any funding bill that does not include disaster relief.

“I agree that CR had bad things in it,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, who also said disaster relief “is not pork,” or perceived wasteful spending.

For the second day in a row, Trump doled out threats to Republican congressmen not willing to fall in line with his 11th-hour ask to include a debt limit increase with a short-term government funding package.

This time, the president-elect went after Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, who is often aligned with Trump’s policy and political leanings. Roy and his fellow conservatives have been vehemently against any debit limit increases throughout their time in Congress but were blind-sided by Trump’s last-minute ask Wednesday.

“The very unpopular ‘Congressman’ from Texas, Chip Roy, is getting in the way, as usual, of having yet another Great Republican Victory - All for the sake of some cheap publicity for himself. Republican obstructionists have to be done away with,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

At a national conservative confab in Arizona, activists and hard-right media voices are celebrating Speaker Mike Johnson’s struggles and mega-billionaire Elon Musk’s assertion of influence.

Podcaster Jack Posobiec took aim at Johnson during a live taping of his talk show, Human Events, as AmericaFest 2024 opened Thursday in Phoenix.

“Should Mike Johnson remain speaker of the House,” he asked, prompting a chorus of “Noooooo!!!” from his audience.

The jeers continued when Posobiec asked whether Johnson should yield the speaker’s gavel. The crowd was less responsive when he asked another question: “Should Elon Musk be speaker of the House?” Still, there were plenty of cheers as an answer.

Speaker Johnson is spending the day locked in meetings with various factions within the House Republican caucus.

“We’re having honest conversations and we’ll see where it gets us,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Ballart, a member of the Appropriations Committee.

Asked whether the government would shut down, Rep. Andy Harris, chair of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, told reporters: “That discussion will occur, but I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, another Freedom Caucus member, commuted in and out of Johnson’s office for much of the morning without taking questions from reporters.

Even as he rejected the deal, Trump suggested that he was at least cognisant of concerns in farm country, which voted heavily for him in the election.

“Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” Trump said in a joint statement Wednesday night with Vance.

According to fresh projections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture this month, net farm income is expected to decline 4.1% for 2024 after falling 19.4% in 2023 from the record highs reached in 2022.

American farmers are hoping that aid to agriculture will be revived as Congress struggles to pass a short-term spending bill that would keep the federal government funded and avert a looming partial government shutdown set to begin after midnight Friday night.

A one-year extension of federal farm programs, around $30 billion in economic relief and an agreement that would increase sales of a higher blend of ethanol, called E15, were part of a bipartisan deal that collapsed Wednesday.

It’s unclear whether a new deal could come together in time to prevent a shutdown — and whether any of those farm provisions would survive whole or in part, either as part of an extension or in separate legislation.

▶ Read how the scuttled bear would have helped farmers

In the past, Democrats have been open to the idea of eliminating the debt ceiling, as Trump has suggested. Sen. Elizabeth Warren backed the proposal earlier today, saying, “I agree with President-elect Trump that Congress should terminate the debt limit and never again govern by hostage taking.”

But doing away with the debt ceiling or even lifting it again would be a big deal, politically and policywise. Like any relationship, it’s not the kind of thing you drop on your negotiating partner at the last minute. Top Democrats have signaled, for now, that they’re in no mood to bargain Johnson and Trump out of their problems.

“President Trump’s last-minute request that the debt ceiling be eliminated throws a whole other issue into the debate,” said Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee. She said “it’s a real worry” that the government could shut down and federal workers would not get paid.

Johnson has several options, with just a day to go before the government begins to shut down, none of them great for his own political survival or Trump’s desired policy outcomes.

• Johnson could ask Democrats to help him pass a very stop-gap measure — say a few days or a week of government funding — to push past the Christmas holidays and relaunch negotiations in the new year.
• Or he could take a more complicated route of letting the government shut down while spending the weekend trying to broker a deal with rebellious Republicans before bringing it to Democrats to see if they would agree. That seems rough when lawmakers are trying to get out of town for the holidays.

Donald Trump’s demand to raise the debt ceiling has caught senior Republicans by complete surprise.

“I didn’t expect that we’d be debating this at Christmas time,” said Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

She had pushed for Congress to wrap up the entirety of the government’s budget by the end of the year and said, “It’s ironic that now the president is weighing in saying that we should have done everything to clear the deck for him.”

Trump wants Congress and Biden to scrap the debt limit — his big requirement for averting a government shutdown.

The irony is that lots of budget wonks would also like to see the legal cap on government borrowing go away. It’s just that their motivations are different from what Trump’s appear to be. Here’s what is key to understanding this policy debate:

1. The federal debt is a result of the government spending more than it gets in revenues. Investors and the financial markets step in by lending to the government to make up the difference. The debt ceiling dates back to 1917 and was designed so that Congress wouldn’t have to approve each new debt issuance during World War I. It’s now redundant given that Congress still needs to change spending and tax policies to address debt.
2. The debt ceiling can be a tool in a divided government to extract concessions. Republicans can block Democratic initiatives and vice-versa.
3. By demanding Biden scrap the debt ceiling, Trump could blame the higher budget deficits over the next few years on his predecessor by playing on a public perception that the debt ceiling enabled it. The irony is that deficits might be higher in the coming years because of the tax cuts that Trump wants to extend and sign into law.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser tried Thursday to correct misinformation amplified online by Elon Musk about how Congress’ defunct end-of-year spending bill would impact efforts for a potential new stadium for the NFL’s Washington Commanders.

Musk reposted false reports on X, the platform he owns, that claimed Congress’ spending bill includes $3 billion for a new football stadium.

The resolution includes a provision to transfer control of the land including the husk of old RFK Stadium from the federal government to the District for 99 years. That transfer is necessary to pave the way for the Commanders to potentially build a new stadium in the franchise’s old home — though the team is still considering other locations.

“It was stated that the CR contains $3 billion for a stadium,” Bowser said. “All wrong. There are no federal dollars related to the transfer of RFK, and in fact the legislation does not require or link at all to a stadium. We’re talking about how the District can invest in removing blight.”

▶ Read more about the misinformation surrounding RFK Stadium

Tucked into the bipartisan budget bill that appears to have collapsed was a reauthorization of the federal government’s authority to track and disable drones deemed to be a threat, which is also scheduled to expire at midnight Friday.

The reauthorization is key as suspected drone sightings across the eastern U.S. continue to captivate the public and state and local officials increase their calls for action by the federal government.

Federal officials, meanwhile, continue to say there’s no evidence yet of any threats to homeland security or public safety, and many of the objects seen in the skies were actually legal drones, manned aircraft and in some instances stars.

It’s not clear what a lapse in the drone authority would mean, including to drone detection systems the federal government has deployed to several states.

There is often a scramble on Capitol Hill to put together a last-minute funding package to keep the government open just before a deadline, at least temporarily.

Jimmy Carter saw a shutdown every year during his term as president. And there were six shutdowns during President Ronald Reagan’s time in the White House.

Should one occur, the basic rules for who works and who doesn’t date back to the early 1980s and haven’t been significantly modified since. Under a precedent-setting memorandum penned by Reagan’s budget chief David Stockman, federal workers are exempted from furloughs if their jobs are national security-related or if they perform essential activities that “protect life and property.”

The most recent shutdown was six years ago when Trump demanded funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. That shutdown was the longest in U.S. history.

No. Recipients of both Social Security and Medicare would continue to receive their benefits, which are part of mandatory spending that’s not subject to annual appropriations measures. Doctors and hospitals would also continue to get their Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.

But, it’s possible that new applications wouldn’t be processed. During a government shutdown in 1996, thousands of Medicare applicants were turned away daily.

Essential government agencies like the FBI, the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard remain open. Transportation Security Administration officers would continue to staff airport checkpoints.

The U.S. Postal Service also won’t be affected because it’s an independent agency.

But national parks and monuments would close, and while troops would stay at their posts, many civilian employees in agencies like the Department of Defense would be sent home.

Automated tax collection would stay on track, but the Internal Revenue Service would stop auditing tax returns.

Each federal agency determines its own plan for how to handle a shutdown, but basically any government operations deemed nonessential stop happening, and hundreds of thousands of federal employees see their work disrupted.

Sometimes workers are furloughed, meaning that they keep their jobs but temporarily don’t work until the government reopens. Other federal workers may stay on the job but without pay, with the expectation that they would be paid back in full once the government reopens.

The tumultuous turn of events, coming days before Friday’s midnight deadline to fund the government and as lawmakers were preparing to head home for the holidays, sparks a familiar reminder of what it’s like in Trump-run Washington.

Trump led Republicans into the longest government shutdown in history during the 2018 Christmas season and interrupted the holidays in 2020 by tanking a bipartisan COVID-19-relief bill and forcing a do-over.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said a deal is a deal, and any discussion of Trump’s new demands for a debt limit increase are “premature.”

“This reckless Republican driven shutdown can be avoided,” Jeffries said at a press conference at the Capitol.

Republicans should “simply do what is right for the American people and stick with the bipartisan agreement that they themselves negotiated.”

Senior Republicans broke from a meeting in the House speaker’s office saying they are still working on a bill to avert a shutdown.

Rep. Tom Emmer, the third-ranked Republican in leadership, said the situation was “fluid.”

Rep. Tom Cole, the chief Republican appropriator, said work had been “good.”

“I think there’s a path forward,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, another senior Republican appropriator.

Still, any legislation would need Democratic support to pass Congress, leaving Republican leaders a treacherous if not impossible task of meeting Donald Trump’s demands while also gaining Democratic votes.

Trump and his allies effort to torpedo a bipartisan spending agreement has left Democrats extremely frustrated after spending weeks engaging in good faith negotiations with Republican leadership.

After meeting with his caucus, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries once again rejected any possibility that his members would bail out Republicans as the shutdown threat looms.

“GOP extremists want House Democrats to raise the debt ceiling so that House Republicans can lower the amount of your Social Security check,” Jeffries posted on social media. “Hard pass.”

When Congress is down to the wire on passing measures to fund the federal government, the term “CR” often comes up. What does it mean?

“CR” stands for “continuing resolution,” and it’s a temporary spending bill that lets the federal government stay open and operating before Congress and the president have approved a more permanent appropriation.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, CRs typically keep the same level of funding of appropriations from the prior year, or a previously approved CR from the current year.

If Congress doesn’t approve a continuing resolution or more permanent spending measure by Friday, the federal government could shut down.

This is all happening in part because when the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, Congress simply punted the problem by passing a temporary funding bill to keep the government in operation.

That measure expires on Friday.

President-elect Donald Trump says he’s determined to “fight ‘till the end” to get a debt limit increase from Congress. The end, alas, is probably a long ways off.

Congress last suspended the debt limit to January 2025 as part of a package negotiated by then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Even though the bill was signed into law, some House Republicans said it didn’t go far enough, and it ended up costing McCarthy his job when eight Republicans sided with Democrats to oust him.

It took months for McCarthy to negotiate the last deal. Now Trump is looking for Johnson to pass a debt ceiling extension days before a partial government shutdown.