With just a day left before funding for the government runs out, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is scrambling to find a path forward after a previously announced spending package was sunk by criticism from a number of conservatives in Congress and outcry from activists on social media.
The bill, which was publicly unveiled Dec. 17, came in at 1,500 pages long and included disaster aid for states hit by hurricanes and farmers experiencing economic and environmental hardships. Representatives and Senators from hurricane-hit states cautioned against stripping disaster aid from the bill, with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham saying, “anybody who thinks that disaster relief is pork, come to where I live, see what happened in my state, in North Carolina and Georgia.”
Tesla CEO and Trump inner circle member Elon Musk used his influence on social media platform X—which he owns—to “lead a revolt” against the spending bill, calling the legislation “criminal” and saying any member of Congress who votes for the bill should be voted out of office the following election.
Among the provisions of the bill most egregious to conservative lawmakers and activists were efforts to include a cost-of-living adjustment for members of Congress’s paychecks and a section allowing lawmakers to opt out of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Conservatives weren’t the only opposition to the congressional pay increase. Co-chairs of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition Democratic Reps Jared Golden and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez both called for the removal of a pay raise for members of Congress.
Before the bill was officially dead, the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus laid out their demands on the legislation earlier on Wednesday, which included separate votes on major spending cuts and on an amendment preventing the Biden administration from auctioning off as-yet-unused building material for the border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Incoming President Donald Trump issued the final death knell on the bill Wednesday afternoon when he and Vice President-elect JD Vance issued a statement urging Congressional Republicans to reject Speaker Johnson’s bipartisan bill. The duo said the GOP should be able to “support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025” without “Democrat giveaways” that also raise the debt ceiling without spending cuts.
Speaker Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise are now going back to the drawing board with just hours left before a partial government shutdown. Scalise told CBS News that next steps are “unclear” and that “there’s no new agreement right now.”
