House Republicans voted with House Democrats on Friday on a funding bill to avert a government shutdown, and that, in effect, tells Donald Trump and Elon Musk to take a hike.
The bill passed by a 366-34 vote, with all 34 of the no votes coming from far-right Republican Trump supplicants, including Fifth District Virginia Congressman Bob Good, in his last meaningful vote, after he was primaried by Trump in the spring for being insufficiently loyal.
The measure passed on Friday still needs an affirmative vote from the U.S. Senate and a signature by President Biden to keep the lights on.
Because of the process for getting a bill to the president, Biden won’t be able to formally sign it before the midnight deadline to prevent a shutdown, but because this is happening on a weekend, the impact of a delay of several hours should be minimal.
“While I was relieved to vote alongside a bipartisan majority of my colleagues to keep our government running and provide long overdue disaster relief to communities across Virginia, I know the Virginians I represent are frustrated by the political games and the repetitive cycle of chaos,” said Abigail Spanberger, a Central Virginia Democrat who also cast her last meaningful vote with this one, before leaving Congress to pursue the Democratic nomination for governor in Virginia in the 2025 cycle.
The brinksmanship is the result of Trump and Musk convincing Republicans on Wednesday to vote down a similarly worded continuing resolution because they wanted to tie funding for government operations to a provision to either raise or eliminate the arbitrary debt ceiling that Republicans have used for years as a bargaining chip in budget negotiations.
The debt ceiling provision didn’t make it into the continuing resolution passed by the House on Friday.
“After Elon Musk’s X temper tantrum calling for a government shutdown and Donald Trump’s eleventh-hour demand to extend the debt ceiling derailed a bipartisan funding bill, Speaker Johnson reneged on that deal. He then tried to ram a bill through that would pave the way for the incoming administration to enact huge tax breaks for billionaires and large corporations at the expense of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. House Democrats firmly opposed this unilateral bill and defeated their efforts,” Central Virginia Democrat Jennifer McClellan said.
Among the bipartisan priorities that did make it into the final bill: $100 billion in disaster relief for communities impacted by Hurricane Helene, and $10 billion in relief for farmers suffering the effects of climate change.
“During a long, hard-fought week in D.C., Congress had to navigate lots of moving pieces and complicated issues,” Southwest Virginia Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith said. “I continually advocated for a spending package which included disaster relief. With the passage of the American Relief Act, we were successful in passing both government funding and disaster aid for Southwest Virginia in the end-of-year spending package.”
A statement on the vote from Hampton Roads Republican Rob Wittman might come across as a dig at Trump and his co-president-elect Musk.
“We have a responsibility to ensure government functions responsibly and effectively for the American people. Shutting down the government is irresponsible and wastes taxpayer dollars,” Wittman said. “I remain committed to providing a path to fiscal certainty for our federal government, which is why I’ve continued to introduce legislation to bring transparency back to the funding process and hold members of Congress accountable for not completing their work on time.”
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Chris Graham
