WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House of Representatives has rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan to fund federal operations and suspend the debt ceiling a day before a government shutdown.
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Democrats refused to accommodate his sudden demands and the quick-fix cobbled together by Republican leaders. The bill fell 174-235, failing to earn even a majority in the Republican-controlled House.
House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared determined to try again before Friday’s midnight deadline, saying, “We’re going to do the right thing here” ahead of the vote.
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Minutes after Republicans’ plan to avert a shutdown and raise the debt ceiling failed in the House, congressional leaders regrouped to consider what to do next.
Rep. Steve Scalise, the House Republican leader, said they wouldn’t try to bring the bill back to the floor.
Meanwhile Rep. Chip Roy, who spearheaded Republican opposition to the bill, was defiant outside the chamber.
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“I’m ambitious to make sure that we actually cut spending. I’m ambitious to do what we said we would do,” he told reporters.
On the opposite side of the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said: “It’s a good thing the bill failed in the House, now it’s time to go back to the bipartisan agreement we came to.”
The House rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan Thursday to fund federal operations and suspend the debt ceiling a day before a government shutdown, as Democrats refused to accommodate his sudden demands and the quick fix cobbled together by Republican leaders.
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In a hastily convened evening vote punctuated by angry outbursts over the self-made crisis, the lawmakers failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage — but House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared determined to try again before Friday’s midnight deadline.
“We’re going to do the right thing here,” Johnson said ahead of the vote. But he didn’t even get a majority, with the bill failing 174-235.
The outcome proved a massive setback for Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk, who rampaged against Johnson’s bipartisan compromise, which Republicans and Democrats had reached earlier to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown.
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