Transcript of House votes to avoid government shutdown after days of chaotic negotiations

The United States of America is less than eight hours away from a federal government shutdown, unless one of two things happens in the next several hours. One, Speaker Johnson puts forward a Republican bill, legislation to fund the government that can get enough Republican votes to pass his effort last night to do so, which was endorsed by President-elect Trump, failed to get enough votes to pass. The second option is that Speaker Johnson puts forward a compromise bill, compromised government funding legislation that Republicans and Democrats will vote for without Trump and Elon Musk blocking Speaker Johnson from doing so. That was also a problem this week. There was a bill that did have the votes, apparently, to pass, but Trump and Musk did not want that bill to be introduced. So it was not. Let's go to CNN's Manu Raju on Capitol Hill. Manu, what are you hearing from members about this Plan C? Is there a deal that will pass before midnight, or are we going to have a federal government shutdown.

Well, Jake, after days of frantic negotiations, including all day long, to try to appease Donald Trump's late demands and try to win over enough Democrats to get it out of the narrowly divided Congress, it appears that they are moving forward and votes in the House for this last-ditch effort to stave off a government shutdown at midnight tonight. Just moments ago, the House announced that it does plan to have votes on this new approach at 05:00 PM Eastern tonight. Now, this new approach would include a three-month extension of of current government funding. That would lead it to about mid-March until this round of funding would expire. They had to keep past another funding bill in the first 100 days of Donald Trump's term. Also, it would have about $100 billion in disaster relief for communities hit hard by natural disasters. In addition, $10 billion in aid to farmers. Now, what it does not have is raising the national debt limit. Donald Trump had demanded that that be included as part of the deal. That's what scuttled a buy deal to avert a government shutdown to begin with. But his 11th hour demand created major complications. This does not address that.

In fact, they have an agreement among Republicans to try to talk about that next year when Republicans are in control. That's a problem that Donald Trump will have to confront. Is Donald Trump okay with punting on this issue till next year despite his demands that they act on this now? That is one big question. Another big question, Jake, will Democrats get on board behind this? Because they will need two-thirds of the House to support this at the moment, Jeffries, Hakeem Jeffries, has not taken a position on this yet, but the support of his caucus will be essential to getting this across the finish line, Jake.

All right, Monty Rajeev, thanks so much. Joining us now, New York Republican Congressman Mike Lawler. Congressman, where do plans stand right now? Is there going to be a government shutdown?

Look, I've been very clear from the very beginning of my time in Congress, we cannot shut the government down. That's why today we met as a conference and agreed to put a continuing resolution on the floor with a one-year farm bill extension, as well as disaster relief and aid to our farmers who are struggling in the post-pandemic world. We have to We're going to get this across the finish line today and keep the government open. It would be the height of stupidity to shut the government down right before Christmas and heading into a new Congress. That's why I will absolutely vote in favor, and I encourage all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do so. Look, there are provisions that were removed from the original proposed CR to this one, including healthcare funding for 2011 first responders that I was 100% in favor of, as well as PBM reform and outbound controls on China. But those are issues that we're going to have to deal with in a new Congress and get them across the finish line. What cannot happen is that we shut the government down. Folks can be upset about particular issues that they wanted addressed not being in this new version.

But to shut the government down is wrong. And I would just point out, Jake, a lot of the focus has been on, obviously, President Trump weighing in, and he rightly should weigh in. But where is Joe Biden? He's the sitting President of the United States. Nobody has heard a word from Joe Biden or the White House, and we're eight hours away from a government shutdown. This is why Washington is so broken. You talk about the fact that we got to this point of a government shutdown? Go down the hall in the Senate. Chuck Schumer passed exactly zero appropriations bills through the Senate floor this year. Zero. So there is a lot of work ahead of us. Yeah, it's interesting. But we cannot shut the government at this moment.

I certainly understand what you're saying, but at the same time, with all due respect, sir, you're going after the top Democrat in the Senate and a lame duck Democratic President, your conference, the House Republican Conference, we go through this every single time Republicans control the House. You guys can't pass legislation. You can't govern.

Respectfully, Jake, we've actually passed a lot of legislation.

Spending legislation, government funding legislation. I'm talking about government funding legislation.

We passed a lot of legislation that has languished down the hall in the Senate, including- Government funding legislation.

Every time we go through this- We have passed- Every time we go through this- Respectfully, we passed a number of appropriations bills through the House floor.

We passed all 12 through committee. We couldn't even get to a conference committee because Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats, again, passed exactly zero bills. So, yes, I get the frustration. I'm as frustrated as anybody. We have a tight majority in the House right now. We are currently still in a divided government. Senate Democrats are in control in the Senate, and Joe Biden is in control of the White House. And by the way, again, I reiterate, where is Joe Biden?

Why has he not weighed in at all? I'm not disagreeing with that point at all, and I'm not disagreeing with the point you're making about the Senate not passing any of your appropriations bills. But I also suspect that next year, when your party controls the House, the Senate, and the White House, we're still going to have this problem when it comes to government funding bills. Do you disagree?

Look, I've been very vocal within my own conference that everybody needs to recognize they are not going to get everything they want. If they stomp their feet and vote no, every time they don't get 100% of what they want, they will get nothing. Ed Katch famously said, If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 things, vote for me. If you If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 things, go have your head examined. The same applies to legislation. We're not going to agree on every little detail, but you have to find compromise. And I agree. Many in my conference at times have been unwilling to do that. But we are going to have complete control in Washington next year, and they're going to have to, whether they like it or not, or they will get nothing.

We are really grateful that tonight in bipartisan fashion, with overwhelming majority of votes, we pass the American Relief Act of 2025. This is a very important piece of legislation. It funds the government, of course, until March of 2025. That was a big priority for us. This is America first legislation because it allows us to be set up to deliver for the American people. In January, we will make a sea change in Washington. President Trump will return to DC and to the White House, and we will have Republican control of the Senate and the House. Things are going to be very different around here. This was a necessary step to bridge the gap, to put us into that moment where we can put our fingerprints on the final decisions on spending for 2025. We also, in this bill, as you know, took care of Americans who desperately needed and deserve the assistance. We had a record hurricane season. Hurricanes Helene and Milton, in particular, did dramatic damage across at least six states, the Carolinas, the Virginia, from Florida, Tennessee, all the way through. And they had been waiting for the federal government to assist. We did that tonight in this bill.

We also took care of our farmers, many of whom were on the brink of collapse because of Bidenomics, frankly, because the inflationary cost of their inputs and the inability they have right now to get loans from the banks and the lenders to put their crops in the ground, to put the seeds in the ground in the spring. So we had to take care of that, and we did. We are excited about this outcome tonight. We're grateful that everyone stood together to do the right thing. And having gotten this done now as the last order of business for the year, we are set up for a big and important new start in January. We can't wait to get to that point. We encourage swift passage in the Senate now. They need to do their job as the House just did. We will all go home. I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas Happy Hanukah, happy holidays, and a happy New Year, because I hope not to see you until we get back after that. I was in constant contact with President Trump throughout this process, I spoke with him most recently, about 45 minutes ago.

He knew exactly what we were doing and why, and this is a good outcome for the country. I think he certainly is happy about this outcome as well. Elon Musk and I talked within about an hour ago, and we talked about the extraordinary challenges of this job. And I said, Hey, you want to be speaker of the House? I don't know. He said, This may be the hardest job in the world. I think it is. But we're going to get through this. We are going to unify this country, and we are going to bring the America First agenda to the people beginning in January. We cannot wait to get started. I hope you all have a great holiday.

Do you still want to be a speaker, Mr. Johnson?

How will this be different?

All right, the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, not answering reporters' questions, but making an important statement praising the decision, the vote that just occurred in the House of Representatives, averting a government shutdown, which would have gone into effect at midnight tonight. Federal employees would stop being paid. It would have caused enormous damage, enormous problems for the US. But now it'll go to the Senate, where it's almost certainly going to pass. Then President Biden will sign it into law. All of that happening before midnight tonight. There won't be a government shutdown. Let's get your reaction.

Sure. Let me start with you. Yeah, no, I think it's a great thing for America that we're passing this bill. A shutdown is incredibly devastating. The last time we had one was under the Trump administration was the longest in American history, 35 days, cost more than $11 trillion to the American public. So I'm glad that they came together in a bipartisan way to pass this bill. But what happened today, this whole debacle, really foreshadows the chaos and the uncertainty that we can all come to expect in this next term. I think the American people need to become sober and clear-eyed about, again, not just who's in charge, but how it affects their lives. So again, I'm glad they came together in a bipartisan way to pass.

I thought it was interesting, Lauren, that the speaker, Mike Johnson said earlier today, he spoke with both Trump and Elon Musk. He was basically seemingly equating the two, and he said Trump was happy about what was going on.

Yeah, I think there was a lot of anxiety and excitement about how Elon Musk and Dodge were going to operate within Washington because it wasn't an official capacity, right?

I mean, they had no official powers.

I think we saw how they're going to react today. It's an influence campaign. They're going to be making recommendations. And I think that through X, through social media, they will be pushing government to do things and then also using the amazing amount of money that they have for a lot primaries and other things to pressure members into votes that they want. That was interesting to me. But I think that Elon Musk is going to have a harsh awakening at some point because Trump is not going to want to share the spotlight with Elon Musk forever.

So it's really just a question of how long this will go on and how long Elon will continue to have as much power as he does at this moment.

I was just going to add, I've worked for two presidents, and when you work in the White House, the one thing everyone says is no one gets ahead of the President, and Elon Musk got ahead of the President. So I think it's going to be interesting to see whether or not Democrats, my advice to Mr. Jeffrey's would be to plate their egos against each other, right? To create a separation and divide. But continue to raise this question, is the world's most richest man running are government.

Two very, very big egos right now.

Absolutely. Everybody stand by. There's a lot more we're watching.

It comes after two days of sheer chaos spurred on by President Elect and his unelected buddy. E Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire.

Elon Musk. President Musk. Musk.

Elon Musk.

Unelected Elon Musk. Elon Musk and his sidekick, Donald Trump.

It was Elon Musk who first upended this process, furiously tweeting his opposition to the spending bill after a bipartisan deal was in place. The result of months of negotiations between both parties. Yes, those are his tweets coming at you like that. Musk decided he wasn't happy with it, and Trump joined in. Musk now appears content after Democrats and Republicans voted 366 to 34 to pass this new bill. Musk posting on social media tonight his congratulations to House Speaker Mike Johnson, saying, The speaker did a good job here. Given the circumstances, it went from a bill that weighed a pound to a bill that weighed ounces. But one crucial thing is missing from those ounces. One thing President-elect Trump wanted to suspend the debt ceiling. Mono Rajeev was out front on Capitol Hill. Mono, what This is the latest you're hearing out there in this chaos, and I'm sure everyone is exhausted.

Yeah, a big sigh of relief after two days of hectic, frantic, and very tense negotiations in the aftermath of both Musk and Donald Trump engaging very late. And Trump making that late demand to not only to scuttle this bipartisan deal, but to add the increase of a national debt limit, a politically fraud issue that typically takes months to resolve, to just get that done in a couple of days, simply Only because he did not want to deal with it while he was present in his term. Democrats did not want to get in on that issue because they see that as leverage to fight the Trump agenda in the next term. The end result was that Donald Trump did not get what he wanted. He had to set it aside amid bipartisan opposition, including from some conservative Republicans. And in talking to Republicans today, it was clear that a lot of them believe that Trump mishandled this issue.

To get any of this across the middle.

I will eat some sandwiches of budget bills and debt ceiling increases so that Trump has a great runway.

But you got to plan ahead to do that. How much should that complicate things to wait until Wednesday to say that he needs this now? Well, you're seeing it play out right now. Just the way that he went after you and the fact that you defied him, what does that say about his power or limits of power here?

There was no defiance.

We just had a disagreement on the bill the other night, and that's fine.

You can have disagreement.

I represent constituents in Article One in Congress.

I think we ended up in the right result in the back and forth. Again.

That last comment coming from congressman Chip Roy, who actually was the subject of Donald Trump going after him rather than directly and personally yesterday on social media, but Roy defied Donald Trump. He voted against Trump's supported plan yesterday, even voted against this current plan that just passed the House. Ultimately, they are punting on that very complicated issue of the debt ceiling for the next term. Sarah, This just means that in the first 100 days, Donald Trump will have his work cut off from, help to avoid another government shutdown by mid-March, and then contend with raising the national debt limit. Those are big problems. Even a single-party rule is poised to come to Washington.

We will see what happens. Monu Raj, you're there for the roller coaster of a ride. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. All right, out front now, Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell. All right, so you voted for this bill. Do you think it was better than the original? I did.

No, but my prerogative was to make sure that the hardworking employee who serves our veterans or keeps our airport safe with the TSA or is monitoring air traffic as an air traffic controller, that they get paid for the work that they do. This wasn't perfect. This was completely unnecessary, Sarah. And what concerns me is that House Republicans, they have a five or six seat margin right now, and they allowed must to completely own them. What's going to happen when their margins narrow in two weeks and they're not going to be able to really lose anyone on their side? And so I just worry that we're descending into chaos here. And whatever they thought the message was from this past election, this isn't it. People wanted lower costs, wanted more security at the border, lower crime for us to be strong in the world. And this This wasn't it. To put people in so much fear about their own future, I just worry about where we go from here.

You said that you didn't think this was better than the bipartisan bill that had been hashed out for many, many weeks. But this was plan C. Was there any calculation on your part or other Democrats that you've been talking to that you would get blamed for a shutdown if you didn't vote for this one?

Well, again, it was more about the TSA security officer that two weeks ago pulled me aside as he was helping me as I was going through security. And he said, Hey, I saw you coming through, and my wife told me to ask you, Are we going to be okay? So just knowing that people are counting on us to get this right. It's not perfect by any means, but that person not getting paid and thousands of others not getting paid, that's also not right. For Democrats, I think the message we have to convey is Republicans, they're going to fight for the rich, were for the rest.

I do want to ask you something because there is something missing from this bill that Donald Trump had put out there on social media that he wanted. Speaker Johnson said tonight that Trump is actually happy with the outcome of plan This is what has turned into plan C. But just yesterday, Trump tweeted a primary challenge against any House Republican who voted for a bill that did not include a debt limit increase. When you look at this, do you think this is going to impact Johnson's speakership, and what do you make of that argument?

I don't. Donald Trump has been a perennial loser in Congress. Remember, he was out there during the Senate majority leader race, and his preference was for Rick Scott to win, and Rick Scott got trounced. And in the past, he's done the same thing, going after members. And so this is just bluster. And so if my colleagues recognize that you can ride this out, you don't have to shrink, you can stand tall and assert your values and stand up for your constituents, we're going to be fine. But I told some of my Republican colleagues yesterday who were just absolutely banging their head against the wall when the Musk tweets started coming. I told them, If you shrink now Now, Musk is going to own you for the next two years. So you have to stand up against him, against a bully, and show that you're going to defend your constituents and their priorities, and you're not going to let him tell you what to do. The more they do that against Trump, I think the more Trump shrinks rather than them shrinking and hurting their constituents.

Well, certainly the bill shrink quite a bit in all this. Congressmen's Wallwell, thank you so much, and congrats on getting the bill through. My pleasure.

When you Now is South Dakota Republican congressman, Dusty Johnson. Thanks so much for taking time on this Friday evening.

You bet.

So this just got through. It was a bit messy at the end. And let's be frank, the Republican majority of the House is actually going to get slimmer in the next Congress. Is this a taste of what it's going to be like governing as we begin the new year?

Oh, yeah, it's a bit of a taste. We are a deeply divided country, and we're a pretty deeply divided Congress. It is not going to be pretty, but we're going to get our work done in the next two years, just like we got it done this week.

Okay, this legislation does not include a very key issue. That is a suspension of the debt limit, which was something President-elect Trump had been demanding ending from Republicans, and yet more than three dozen of them basically sank that. I just wonder, why were Republicans willing to defy him on that?

The reality is that President Trump did get what he wanted. He got a commitment that we're going to address the debt ceiling early next year, and that's no big surprise. Everybody knows the debt ceiling is going to be addressed next year. Of course, we are not going to default on our debts. That would be catastrophic. The debt ceiling is a leverage point for whatever the minority party is. President Trump wants to make sure that that's not a leverage point for Chuck Schumer and the Democrats. Into the middle of next year, we, of course, are going to take care of that for him. I do think he was able to get the deal that he needed this week.

I mean, to be clear, he did want to get it out of the way before he came into office. Maybe it's the best he could get with that divided House Republican caucus. But let me ask you this, 2.5 trillion trillion dollars in cuts. That's a big figure. How do you get to that figure in the next Congress as you come in without cutting entitlements? Or is that on the table now?

I know we love to scare the hell out everybody by talking about trillion dollar cuts, but let's put this in.

That's not my figure. That's the Republican's figure.

No, I get it. But we need to put the $2 trillion number, the $2.5 trillion number in context. Over the next 10 years, we're going to spend $80 trillion Is American life really going to crumble into the sea if we spend $78 trillion instead? We all know that there is plenty that we can do to focus that spending. Frankly, I'm looking forward to it. I do think Americans are frustrated with the size, the slowness, and frankly, the intrusiveness of the government. There is obviously some things we're going to protect. We can't touch Social Security and reconciliation. So anybody's trying to fear mongering on that is frankly just doesn't understand what the law says. Then President Trump has made it clear we're not going to be touching Medicare either.

Okay. Not Social Security, not Medicare. Medicaid?

Medicaid is the thing where I think we can do a much, much better job of providing health care to America's needy. Listen, we're a rich enough country, clearly the least fortunate among us. Listen, we're going to help them with their health care, but that is not a well-run program. Do I think that over the course of the next 10 we can do a better job with that program? Absolutely, we can.

You are an elected member of Congress, and you just earned your seat again. I want to ask you about Elon Musk's role in all this, because you guys had a bipartisan deal with a lot of things that didn't make it into this final agreement here until that tweet from Elon Musk. Are you comfortable with him wielding that power over a Republican-led Congress?

Well, first off, we did not have a deal. I mean, the 1,500-page bill that got rolled out, It wasn't the thing that I was able to see before it was released. It wasn't the thing that I ever expressed support for. In fact, I had indicated to leadership that I was opposed to it. But listen, that's how these things go. You cut a deal, you see whether or not your membership is there. Of course, at that point, you want America to weigh in. That's what the First Amendment is about. I don't think we should be muscling Elon Musk just because the guy's got a lot more money than I do. He is a disruptor. He is brilliant. There are times he's going to intervene in an unorthodox way, but over the long haul, I think there's going to be a lot of good that comes from that.

We'll see. Congressman Johnson, we appreciate it. Happy holidays to you and your family.