Government shutdown live updates: Third new spending bill finally passes as White House approves
It was the third attempt to avoid a government shutdown after Speaker Mike Johnson’s second congressional spending bill failed in a blow to Musk and Trump
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Your support makes all the difference.The House has voted to approve a three-month government spending bill just hours before the shutdown deadline.
It was the third attempt to avoid a government shutdown after Speaker Mike Johnson’s second congressional spending bill, drafted at the insistence of Donald Trump to include a suspension of the debt limit and remove a number of concessions to Democrats, was comprehensively defeated in the House of Representatives on Thursday night.
It was a blow to Trump and Elon Musk, who commanded Congress to ditch the original bipartisan framework.
The stop-gap bill needs Senate approval before President Joe Biden can sign it into law.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president supported the third bill.
“President Biden supports moving this legislation forward and ensuring that the vital services the government provides for hardworking Americans – from issuing Social Security checks to processing benefits for veterans – can continue as well as to grant assistance for communities that were impacted by devastating hurricanes,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
Federal funding runs out at midnight on Friday and the White House Office of Management and Budget warned government agencies to prepare for the worst before the vote took place.
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VOICES: Peter Mandelson is a gamble as US ambassador – but exactly what Trump needs
One of the hardest things about being the British ambassador to Washington is giving it up at the end of your term.
You are living in one of the finest private addresses in DC – the only Lutyens built house in North America – with its fabulous art collection, swimming pool, tennis court and hot and cold running servants; with your chauffeur driven Bentley, manicured gardens – and you’re right next door to the vice president’s official residence on Massachusetts Avenue. Trading that for your semi in Balham, or wherever your civil service salary has allowed you to buy, is quite the readjustment.
And our embassy in DC has just been totally refurbished at a cost of tens of millions of pounds. Yes, there can still be a bit of a sewery smell on the lower ground floor, and the fireplace in the drawing room when lit invariably smokes out the whole house so that guests have to retreat to the terrace. But these are small details.
Read more:
Peter Mandelson is a gamble as US ambassador – but exactly what Trump needs
Tony Blair may think being in charge of the British embassy in Washington is like running an up market B&B, writes Jon Sopel. But with Trump back in charge, the job has never been more important or more difficult – and Mandelson is a class act
‘Trump can sit on Truth Social all day. That didn’t persuade 38 members of Congress'
How a government shutdown could impact your holiday plans
A partial government shutdown is looming over the United States right before the holidays due to disagreements over a spending bill in Congress and lawmakers have until Friday night to figure it out.
If a spending bill finally does pass, federal agencies would be funded until mid-March.
But if it reaches midnight and there is still no deal, some federal services will be temporarily sidelined or federal workers will go unpaid.
Here’s Ariana Baio on how a government shutdown could impact Americans’ holiday plans.
How a government shutdown could impact your holiday plans
Lawmakers have until midnight Friday to pass a bill or risk shutting down the government before they embark on a 16-day break
House Republicans to meet to discuss emergency funding strategy and breaking up bill into four separate votes
Alaska Senator says she’s begun cancelling flights home for Christmas
Republican Lisa Murkowski has been speaking just now to The Independent’s Eric Garcia on the chaos in Congress and tells him she has four flights home for Christmas booked and has already had to cancel one.
“I’m reading whatever you guys are writing,” she said of the struggle to stay abreast of developments.
On Elon Musk’s influence over the incoming Trump administration, Murkowski said: “I guess that’s the power of an influencer. I mean, you know, you would think that there’s value in your election certificate, that we’re back here to do the work – and we will do the work.
“But this is obviously a level of influence that we saw the impact of yesterday.”
Her Kentucky counterpart Rand Paul tells The Indy that he thinks Chuck Schumer will pass a spending bill to keep the government open and then kick it to the House.
“I think Schumer eventually will pass something here, and that it’ll go over there and it’ll pass over there,” he said.
Montana Democratic Senator Jon Tester was more blunt, telling us: “Look, the House has taken orders from the unelected false president Elon Musk.
“That’s the kind of s*** you run into when you start listening to people who aren’t elected.
“They need to get their heads out of the back end of whoever they got it up and get the job done.”
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders adds: “You have Elon Musk, an unelected official telling Republicans what they have to do and threatening to primary them if they don’t obey his wishes, you’re really seeing the power of oligarchy and the power of big money.”
Voices: ‘Trump’s war on the press is straight out the Putin playbook'
The incoming president and his acolytes are promising retribution for critical journalists, writes Alan Rusbridger.
It is already having a chilling impact – and poses grave threats to the future of the free press.
Trump’s war on the press is straight out the Putin playbook
The incoming president and his acolytes are promising retribution for critical journalists, writes Alan Rusbridger. It is already having a chilling impact – and poses grave threats to the future of the free press
Elon Musk endorses German far-right AfD party as ‘saviour’ of country
Fresh from spoiling Christmas for America’s congressmen and women, the Big Tech mogul has described the far-right political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the country’s “saviour”, sparking calls from Berlin for him to “stay out” of its politics.
Honestly, couldn’t he just take up tennis or something?
Here’s Tom Watling’s report.
Elon Musk endorses far right AfD party as ‘saviour’ of Germany
Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismisses the intervention, saying Germany has freedom of speech and that ‘also goes for multibillionaires’
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