Trump and Elon Musk had earlier demanded that House Republicans abandon US Speaker’s bipartisan accord struck with top Democrats
By Kehinde Okeowo
Democrats and some conservative Republican House members on Thursday night rebelled against a spending bill introduced by Speaker Mike Johnson and backed by President-Elect, Donald Trump.
The bill, which was to avert a government shutdown was considered under a fast-track method that required 2/3 for passage.
However, the measure went down decisively, 174-235, failing to meet a two-thirds bar for passage under, as some Republicans joined 197 Democrats to tank the bill.
This means a stunning 38 Republicans ignored Trump and Elon Musk and voted no, while two Democrats voted for the bill, and another one voted present.
With government funding set to expire at midnight Friday, Elon Musk and Trump lured Congress into a power struggle, demanding that Johnson abandon the bipartisan accord he struck with top Democrats this week and instead craft a bill favored by Republicans.
ALSO READ: Trump doubles down on wish to make Canada US’s 51st state
But by defeating a Trump-backed alternative, Democrats have demonstrated that they won’t help him pass bills if they don’t have a seat at the negotiating table.
“A deal’s a deal,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the House’s top Democratic appropriator, said on the floor before the vote.
“Yesterday a multi-billionaire, with apparently no working knowledge of government or of appropriations — a self-appointed president of the United States, Elon Musk — issued a marching order for House Republicans to go against their own elected leadership and shut down the government,” DeLauro said. “Soon after, Congress was on a fast track to a government shutdown.”
GOP leaders could now try to pass the bill with a simple majority. But they would need almost every Republican to vote in support of teeing up debate, then for passage — a feat they have continually failed to pull off over the last two years as conservative lawmakers block party leaders from passing funding bills under a simple majority.
