WASHINGTON — A government shutdown was imminent Friday as Donald Trump, aided by billionaire Elon Musk, torpedoed a short-term budget bill negotiated by House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democrats and an alternative favored by the president-elect failed.
After Musk flooded his platform X with calls to kill the compromise, which would have funded the federal government for three months, Johnson withdrew it from consideration for a much slimmer bill that did not include Democratic priorities but included a Trump priority – an increase in the nation’s debt ceiling.
But a vote late Thursday on that alternative failed, with 38 Republicans and nearly all Democrats voting against it. The prospect of a government shutdown a minute after midnight on Friday seemed imminent.
All of Minnesota’s Republican House members voted for the bill and all Democrats voted against the failed effort.
On Friday morning, Johnson said he is working on another, last-minute attempt to stave off the shutdown. But he is not consulting Democrats whose votes he would need to push the legislation through Congress.
The chaos in these last few days of the 118th Congress revived threats among House GOP lawmakers to oust Johnson, R-Louisiana, when an election for that leadership role is held in January. Also revived: Whispers of replacing Johnson with Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District – who has several times said that he’s not interested in the job.
The impact of a government shutdown would grow over time. In Minnesota about 17,000 federal workers would be affected. Some would work without pay, if they are considered “essential employees.” That includes the TSA agents on the job during the busiest travel season, members of the military and employees of federal prisons.
Most federal workers would be furloughed without pay. While Social Security checks would still be disbursed, those who work for the agency would not be available to process new applications and resolve problems.
And Minnesota companies with federal contracts – which account for billions of dollars in revenue every year – would find that their applications for new contracts are on hold. Some with existing contracts may find their payments have stopped until the federal government reopens.
The failed agreement with Democrats that Musk and Trump derailed, called a continuing resolution (CR) would have extended the 2018 farm bill for another year, given farmers and ranchers $10 billion in disaster aid, and increased payments for several programs in the federal agriculture safety net, benefitting Minnesota’s wheat, corn and soybean growers.
The new money for farmers and ranchers was promoted by GOP lawmakers. But to attract enough votes to pass, the CR also included Democratic initiatives, including a bill sponsored by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Ted Cruz called the “Take it Down Act,” that would require social media companies and websites to remove non-consensual, pornographic images created with artificial intelligence, a phenomenon that has recently exploded.
The more than 1,500-page CR also contained a provision that would allow the sales of E15 year round and give members of Congress, whose pay has been frozen since 2009, a cost-of -living raise in the amount of $6,600. Rank-and-file lawmakers currently earn $174,000 a year.
The proposed pay raise was torched on social media and condemned by GOP lawmakers. It was also opposed by some Democrats in “purple” districts, including Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District.
The dysfunction in Congress has resulted in an inability to pass the 12 spending bills needed to fund all government agencies. So the government has been funded since Oct. 1 – the beginning of the federal fiscal year – through a CR that expires at midnight on Friday.
Efforts to avoid a shutdown were made more difficult by Trump’s insistence that the CR raise the debt limit, a move that stunned lawmakers.
Trump hailed the GOP’s latest effort to avoid a shutdown, which would lift the debt limit for two years.
Raising the debt limit allows the federal government to borrow more money to meet its obligations. The national debt is now about $36 trillion and efforts to lift the cap provokes widespread criticism.
Trump said he wants the debt limit to be raised now, while Joe Biden is president and not when he is in the White House. Without a hike in the debt limit, the federal government would end the ability to meet its obligations in May or June, roiling financial markets and likely leading to an economic depression.
Congress last raised the limit 18 months ago, after Republicans and Democrats agreed to suspend a cap on how much the government can borrow until after the 2024 presidential election to avoid a politically difficult vote during the campaign season.
But, with plans to push tax cuts and drastically increased border spending, Trump is concerned a spending cap will limit his ability to pursue his agenda.
Rep. Betty McCollum, D-4th District, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, said “President-elect Trump is responsible for the impending shutdown.”
“We had a bipartisan agreement and a plan to keep the government open, but Elon Musk and President-elect Trump had their own idea – and it failed…” McCollum said.
She urged GOP leaders to “return to the original bipartisan agreement that Democrats and Republicans from both the House and Senate agreed upon to keep the government open for the American people.”
This and that
Sen. Amy Klobuchar was named the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee in the new Congress, which will shift to GOP control after November’s election.
The announcement of Klobuchar’s new job came Wednesday, the day after Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, was named the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee.
While the Minnesota lawmakers will both be in the minority in the 119th Congress, their position as top Democrats on the agricultural committees will give them some clout when Congress tries again to craft a new five-year farm bill.
Quinnipiac University released a poll this week that showed Minnesota native Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, has little public support for his confirmation.
Only 33% of the respondents of this national poll said Hegseth should be confirmed, while 39% said he should not be confirmed and 28% said they hadn’t heard enough about him.
Another controversial pick, Robert Kennedy Jr., the nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, had more support – 44% said he should be confirmed. But 45 % said Kennedy should not be confirmed and only 9% said they hadn’t heard enough about the controversial candidate.
Kristi Noem, Trump’s choice for Secretary of Homeland Security and Kash Patel, the nominee to head the FBI, also had the support of only 33% of the poll’s respondents. Meanwhile, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s choice for Secretary of State whose candidacy has created little controversy, won a majority of the respondents’ support, 53%.
Hegseth’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled for Jan. 14 and expected to be contentious. The former Fox News host has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in his hotel room in 2017 and has been subject to allegations of out-of-control drinking and mismanagement during his time as the head of two veteran organizations. Hegseth denies all allegations.
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Your questions and comments
A reader graciously said he liked our story about how Minnesota’s mining industry will get a boost in the second Trump administration, but he asked for more reporting on the state’s role in permitting the projects.
“Perhaps you can explore whether any of these projects will be operational in the next 4 years, in large part because more than the federal government is involved, i.e. Minnesota & the Native American tribes,” the reader wrote.
Yes, we have every intention of doing so!
Another reader reacted to the planned resignation of FBI Director Christopher Wray after it was clear he would be forced out so Trump could appoint Kash Patel to the position.
“Wray did his job and Trump thinks he is above the law,” the reader wrote. “(Trump’s) claims of weaponizing the FBI to get him are false, but he plans to do exactly that with his appointment,” the reader said.
Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at [email protected].