President Joe Biden, on Saturday signed a government funding bill, averting a shutdown that threatened to disrupt critical services and leave federal workers without pay during the holiday season.
The last-minute agreement followed a whirlwind of negotiations and political brinkmanship, sparked by interventions from President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.
The federal government’s operations were hanging by a thread as lawmakers scrambled to find common ground. The negotiations went down with the Senate fast-tracking the bill just minutes past the midnight deadline.
The new legislation funds the government through mid-March, providing a temporary reprieve but leaving long-term budget disputes unresolved.
The crisis began when Republicans, under pressure from Trump and Musk, backed away from a bipartisan funding agreement they had previously crafted with Democrats.
The dramatic shift left Congress in turmoil, as lawmakers raced against time to avoid a government shutdown that could furlough up to 875,000 federal workers and force an additional 1.4 million employees to work without pay.
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Trump, the incoming president, and Musk, who is set to take on the newly created role of “efficiency czar,” wielded their influence in an unprecedented move. They called on Republican lawmakers to reject the original funding package, arguing for a budget overhaul that prioritized deep spending cuts and tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy.
This last-minute intervention fractured the tenuous bipartisan coalition in Congress, forcing House Speaker Mike Johnson to return to the drawing board.
Johnson spent much of Friday in a marathon session with his aides, working to piece together a deal that could satisfy both wings of his party while ensuring government agencies remained operational.
The funding bill eventually cleared the House on Friday evening, with Democrats playing a pivotal role in helping it pass despite the Republican majority. The Senate followed suit, expediting procedural rules to approve the legislation without delay.
President Biden acknowledged the fraught negotiations in a statement, framing the deal as a necessary compromise. “This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted,” Biden said. “But it rejects the accelerated pathway to a tax cut for billionaires that Republicans sought.”
The final package, while stopping a shutdown, reflects the deep divisions within Congress. Democrats, who hold a slim majority in the Senate, played a crucial role in counterbalancing the demands of Trump-aligned Republicans in the House.