Budget bill passed in House at last minute to prevent US government shutdown government news

A last-minute budget bill to keep the federal government funded and running through mid-March has passed in the United States House of Representatives, averting an impending shutdown.

The ongoing resolution is now advancing in the Senate with just hours to go before the shutdown takes effect at 12:01 a.m. local time (05:01 GMT) on Saturday.

On Friday evening, the temporary budget law passed the House with overwhelming support of 366 votes.

Only 34 representatives, all Republicans, voted against the bill. One Democrat, Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas, abstained from voting “present.”

“We are truly grateful that tonight, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner, we passed the American Rescue Act of 2025,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a news conference after the vote.

However, the stopgap bill left out a key issue that has stalled recent negotiations: the debt ceiling.

Normally, Congress keeps federal spending separate from the debt ceiling, which limits how much the government can borrow.

But this week, President-elect Donald Trump rescinded an earlier bipartisan bill in part because it did not raise or eliminate the debt ceiling, which he compared to a “guillotine” hanging over his incoming administration.

The debt ceiling has become a divisive issue among Republicans, some of whom feared that raising or eliminating it would lead to uncontrolled government spending.

For his part, Trump threatened to mount primary challenges to any Republicans who oppose his plan. He indicated he preferred the debt ceiling debate to be held under the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat and his former election rival.

“Unless the Democrats eliminate or substantially raise the debt ceiling now, I will fight to the end,” Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday. “This is a dirty trap set by the Radical Left Democrats! They are trying to embarrass us in June when it comes to voting.”

Trump’s opposition to the bipartisan legislation this week put him at odds with Johnson, another top Republican leader. Johnson’s predecessor for speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, was ousted last year over his role in passing a bipartisan spending bill in a historic vote.

After the first bipartisan bill was rejected on Wednesday, Trump supported another version that failed in the House a day later, on Thursday. All Democrats, as well as 38 Republicans, opposed it.

Friday’s bill managed to restore Democratic support after closed-door negotiations. In his remarks after the vote, Johnson tried to present the latest spending agreement as a victory for Trump’s America First economic platform.

“This is America First legislation because it allows us to get to work for the American people,” Johnson said.

He also hinted at changes coming in January, when the new Congress will be sworn in and Donald Trump will take office for a second term. When this happens, Republicans will gain a majority in both houses of Congress.

“In January, we will make radical changes in Washington,” Johnson said. “Things are going to be very different here. This was a necessary step to bridge the gap, to get us to the moment where we can put our fingerprints on 2025 spending.

Like earlier bills, the temporary stopgap measure passed Friday includes about $10 billion in agricultural aid and $100 billion in disaster relief, a priority after the devastation of hurricanes like Helene and Milton.

But the uproar that had erupted with an earlier version of the bill had largely subsided by Friday night, with Trump allies like billionaire Elon Musk striking a conciliatory note.

Musk, who described Wednesday’s version of the bill as “criminal”, praised Speaker Johnson after the vote on Friday night for streamlining the legislation.

“Considering the circumstances, the speaker did a good job here,” he wrote on his social media platform X.

Meanwhile, Democrats questioned Musk’s growing influence on the Republican Party. Musk is expected to advise Trump’s incoming administration in a new role as part of a non-government, yet-to-be-established agency known as the Department of Government Efficiency.

“Apparently, Donald Trump didn’t get what he wanted,” Representative Jared Moskowitz of Florida told reporters as he walked down the Capitol stairs. “Looks like Elon got some things he wanted. So that’s interesting.”

Moskowitz credited Democrats for giving Republicans the majority needed to pass the bill in the House, despite internal dissent within the right-wing party.

“The drama that’s been going on here over the last two days didn’t need to happen,” he said. “And we’re really back where we were always going, where the Democrats are trying to keep the government open and the American were providing the majority to work for the people.”