Trump, Vance Throw Curveball Into Spending Fight as Hill Scrambles to Fund Government
President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance want House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans on Capitol Hill to play hardball with obstructionist Democrats in the ongoing government funding fight.
On Tuesday night, Congressional leadership released the text of the continuing resolution that will fund the government until March 14, 2025. With funding set to expire on Dec. 20, Congress needs to act in order to avert a government shutdown on the eve of a new Congress and the presidential transition of power.
Republicans are in a tough spot—especially Johnson. Though Republicans earned a mandate victory in November, Republicans won’t actually have their trifecta until January. A Democratic senate and Democratic president still have to sign off on any plan to fund the government.
Which helps explain why the continuing resolution runs 1,547 pages and includes over $100 billion in additional government spending. The bulk of the additional funding is $110.4 billion in disaster relief aid, ostensibly for damage caused by hurricanes Helene and Milton.
The continuing resolution includes language committing the federal government to completely pay for the rebuilding of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed in March.
It also gives an additional $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers along with a one-year extension of the farm bill.
Hundreds of pages in the continuing resolution pertains to changes in health care policy. The package includes increased flexibility for telehealth under Medicare, pandemic prevention provisions, and a reauthorization of legislation aimed at ending the opioid crisis.
Furthermore, other pieces of the continuing resolution provide a pay raise for members of Congress, the transfer of authority to D.C. over RFK stadium, and hotel and ticket price transparency.
While Johnson said Tuesday that the House originally aimed at passing “a very simple, very clean” continuing resolution, a “couple of intervening things” resulted in a larger package than anticipated.
Members of Johnson’s Republican conference are expressing their disdain for the package.
“It’s not a CR, which is a continuation of the budget. It’s turning into an omnibus,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., told reporters.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, had harsher words: “We get this negotiated crap, and we’re forced to eat this crap sandwich.”
“Why? Because freaking Christmas is right around the corner,” Roy added. “It’s the same dang thing every year. Legislate by crisis, legislate by calendar. Not legislate because it’s the right thing to do.”
It’s not just conservative firebrands in the House complaining, either. “How on earth did a 3 month Continuing Resolution grow into this Cramnibus,” Sen. John Cornyn posted on X.
Also frustrating Republicans on the Hill is the fact that many of the provisions that have turned the continuing resolution into a longer package are a grab-bag of Democratic priorities.
Democrats have laid a trap, and House Republicans from top to bottom have walked right into it.
In this lame duck period, Democrats have no incentive to deal with Republicans in good faith. This is Democrat’s last chance to protect their priorities until at least 2027, and they’re taking full advantage of their current advantages. The first advantage for Democrats is the timing: Republicans are perceived as the party in power, but don’t yet fully have it. If the government shuts down, it appears that Republicans are unable to govern immediately after the American people chose the party to do so. The second advantage is structural: Democrats are always willing to spend more money than Republicans to keep the government open, and use their profligate spending as evidence that Republicans are to blame for any government shutdown.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries suggested as much in an X post. “House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government. And hurt the working class Americans they claim to support,” Jeffries claimed. “You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”
Johnson is trying to rebuff claims that the continuing resolution is an omnibus. “This is not an omnibus, OK? This is a small CR that we had to add things to that were out of our control,” Johnson claimed. “These are not man-made disasters. These are things that are—the federal government has an appropriate role to do.”
“So, I wish it weren’t necessary. I wish we hadn’t had record hurricanes in the fall. And I wish our farmers were not in a bind so much that creditors are not able to lend to them. We have to be able to help those who are in these dire straits,” the speaker added.
Trump and Vance weighed in on the fight via a joint-statement Wednesday afternoon. The incoming president and vice president threw Congress a nasty curveball by demanding the debt ceiling, the suspension of which ends January 1, 2025, is also addressed in the continuing resolution.
“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want,” the statement read.
“Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025,” the statement continued. “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 and Vance also acknowledged that Democrats have no incentive to act in good faith: “Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF. It is Schumer and Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief.”
Previously, Republican House leaders agreed to give members 72 hours to review legislation before voting. Johnson has reaffirmed his commitment to the 72-hour rule, which would have the House voting on the continuing resolution on Friday. The backlash has been so intense, however, that Johnson is now being forced to consider scrapping the rule in case the continuing resolution fails and Congressional leaders are forced back to the drawing board. But Trump and Vance’s statement has made forcing a vote through the House a very risky play.
