Senate passes stop-gap spending bill, preventing a government shutdown

By Lexie Schapitl,

Barbara Sprunt, Claudia Grisales

Published December 20, 2024 at 2:09 PM CST

The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree is up outside the building where GOP leaders are furiously scrambling to find a way to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the day on Friday.

Updated December 21, 2024 at 00:40 AM ET

The Senate voted 85-11 to approve a short-term spending bill to fund the government until March 14. The measure had overwhelming bipartisan support in both chambers after days of chaos caused by the last-minute intervention of President-elect Donald Trump.

In addition to the federal funding, the latest GOP proposal includes $100 billion in aid to communities recovering from natural disasters, including 2023 wildfires in Maui and more recent, post-hurricane flooding in North Carolina.

The proposal also includes a one-year extension of federal farm policy and aid to farmers. It does not include any attempt to address the nation's borrowing limit, despite demands from Trump.

Those demands and criticism from a top-Trump adviser, billionaire Elon Musk, undermined a bipartisan agreement that was reached earlier this week. That left House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., trying to balance Trump's policy demands with the realities of a razor-thin Republican majority in the House, Democratic-controlled Senate and a fast-approaching deadline.

However, one of the policies stripped from the original deal was still approved on Friday. The Senate unanimously approved the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, a bill that had already passed the House and will provide more than $12 million a year in funding for pediatric cancer research for five years.

The White House also backed the agreement Friday, with Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre saying in a statement: "President Biden supports moving this legislation forward and ensuring that the vital services the government provides for hardworking Americans — from issuing Social Security checks to processing benefits for veterans — can continue as well as to grant assistance for communities that were impacted by devastating hurricanes."

The latest congressional clash evoked a sense of deja vu on Capitol Hill from Trump's first term, when he would often change his demands in real time and by surprise announcement on social media.