WASHINGTON: US president-elect Donald Trump urged Republican lawmakers Wednesday to scupper a cross-party deal to avert a fast-looming US government shutdown.
Staring down a Friday night deadline to fund federal agencies, party leaders in Congress had agreed on a "continuing resolution" (CR) to keep the lights on until mid-March and avoid having to send public workers home without pay over Christmas.
But Trump and several of his high-profile allies, including tech billionaire Elon Musk, balked at extra spending in the text that ballooned costs, all but killing its chances of getting to President Joe Biden's desk before departments begin shuttering.
Suggesting that concessions to Democrats in the bill were "a betrayal of our country," Trump called in a joint statement with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance for Republicans to "GET SMART and TOUGH."
"If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF," he said.
Trump holds huge sway over Republicans, who currently control the House of Representatives and will also control the Senate when he returns to office on January 20. His intervention makes it almost certain that the 1,547-page bill will never make it to the House floor.
The package includes more than $100 billion in disaster relief requested by the White House, $30 billion in aid for farmers, restrictions on investment in China and the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009.
But the add-ons to the package sparked a rebellion in Republican ranks, meaning the leadership would have been forced to lean on Democratic votes - a tactic that got the previous House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, axed by his own side.
"House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government. And hurt the working class Americans they claim to support. You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow," said Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
The stakes of the negotiations are particularly high for McCarthy's replacement, Mike Johnson, whose bid to retain the House speaker's gavel in a January vote looks imperiled amid a firestorm of criticism over the legislation.
Doing the rounds on cable news to promote the deal ahead of Trump's statement, Johnson told Fox News: "Here's the key: by doing this, we are clearing the decks, and we are setting up for Trump to come in roaring back with the America First agenda."
Representative government
A CR is required because neither chamber had been able to agree on the various departmental budgets for the full 2025 fiscal year, which started on October 1. Government departments and services from national parks to border control will begin shuttering Saturday unless an agreement is reached.
The massive disaster relief figure, which sparked much of the Republican ire, aimed to help victims of devastating 2024 hurricanes Helene and Milton, and fund recovery efforts for floods, wildfires and tornadoes.
One provision that would directly have impacted lawmakers was a pay rise, achieved by ending a freeze on applying for a cost-of-living allowance available to other federal employees.
The annual salary for members of Congress has been stuck at $174,000 for 15 years and some argue that if it doesn't compete with private sector pay, only rich people will run for office.
Dozens of Republicans in the House - where they have a razor-thin majority and can only lose three members in partisan votes - look set to oppose the bill if it gets to a vote.
Rank-and-file Republicans typically object to temporary funding agreements because they keep spending levels static rather than introducing cuts, and are invariably stuffed with "pork" - extra spending shoehorned in without proper debate.
"It takes a few pages to keep the government open. The other 1,500-plus contain a host of new policies and spending that have been utterly denied the public input on, which representative government depends," said California Congressman Kevin Kiley.
Musk, the world's richest man, posted on his social media platform X that any lawmaker voting for the "outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!"
