WASHINGTON, D.C. — With about one hour to avoid a government shutdown, senators in Washington are gearing up to vote on a spending plan that passed the House earlier Friday evening.
The bill passed the House after previous versions were shot down by Republicans at the request of President-elect Donald Trump and allies, including Elon Musk.
Friday’s spending plan was “Plan C,” for House Republicans, who introduced a similar plan on Thursday, or “Plan B.” The key difference between spending Plan B and Plan C, was the removal of an increase to the debt ceiling in Plan C.
Both plans come after Plan A- an original, bipartisan 1,500-page agreement between House and Senate leaders- which crumbled after pressure from Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and President-elect Donald Trump, who pressured lawmakers to include the provision extending the debt ceiling.
“I wouldn’t be voting for it if I didn’t think the President-elect was going to support it. And I think everybody feels that way,” said Rep. Dan Meuser (R- PA) about Plan C.
“We recognize that the biggest problem we have is our debt, we’ve known this for many, many years. We’ve just ignored it. It’s time now to get on board with it and start working. I think the president will be very, very cognizant as we go into the future,” said Rep. Mike Kelly (R- PA).
Leaving out the debt ceiling increase in Friday’s plan is positive news to some conservative-hardliners who are adamantly against it. It is also good news to Democrats, because the debt ceiling will likely be a key negotiating tool for Democrats to have in their back pocket over the next two years with the Republican trifecta in Washington.
“Let’s skip the drama and get right to where we need to be. Smaller is better. Members can understand it. Our constituents can understand it. And it’s very clear in the intent and make it so that it’s achievable, realistic, and quite frankly, measure the outcomes from these bills,” said Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R- PA). “Everything in this bill has already been supported in a bipartisan way. A lot of the miscellaneous things that were important to both sides of the aisle were eliminated from the bill,” Thompson added.
Friday’s Plan C contained a clean continuing resolution, or short-term spending plan to keep the government open through mid-March 2025. It also contained a one-year extension to the farm bill and disaster relief for areas hit hard from recent natural disasters.
House Republicans felt optimistic Friday afternoon in avoiding a government shutdown once the bill made it through the House.
“I sure hope so. We can’t speak for the Senate,” said Rep. Nick Langworthy (R- NY) when asked if Congress could avoid a shutdown.
The Senate is expected to vote on the legislation before or around midnight. Most of the effects of a shutdown wouldn’t begin to be felt until Monday morning, giving lawmakers some breathing room if the impasse stretches past the 11:59 deadline.
