US Hours From Government Shutdown Over Christmas

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) AFP

Washington: US lawmakers raced on Friday to stave off a government shutdown set to bite within hours, after Donald trump and Elon Musk sabotaged a bipartisan agreement that would have kept the lights on well beyond Christmas.

If no deal is struck, the government will cease to be funded at midnight, and non-essential operations will start to grind to halt, with up to 875,000 workers furloughed and 1.4 million more required to work without pay.

"Republicans blew this deal up. They did. They blew it up, and they need to fix it," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

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Congress's setting of government funding is always a fraught task, with both chambers closely divided between Republicans and Democrats.

The latest drama intensified after Republican president-elect Trump and tech billionaire Musk, his incoming "efficiency czar," pressured Republicans to renege on a funding bill they had hammered out with Democrats.

Two subsequent efforts fell short, leaving Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson at the last chance saloon as he huddled with aides on one last effort to keep federal agencies running.

The latest proposal would fund the government until mid-March and includes $110 billion in disaster aid, as well as financial relief for farmers.

It is essentially the same as a bill that failed miserably in a vote Thursday -- except that it would remove a two-year suspension of the country's self-imposed borrowing limit demanded by Trump but unpopular among fiscal hawks.

'President Musk'

Musk's influence over the Republicans in Congress -- and his apparent sway with Trump -- has become a focus for Democratic attack, with questions raised over how a private, unelected citizen can wield so much power.

"Elon Musk has Donald Trump in a vice," Democratic New York Congressman Dan Goldman told MSNBC. "And it is very clear that Elon Musk is now calling the shots."

Democrats have attempted to rile Trump -- who is famously sensitive to being upstaged -- by referring to "President Musk."

With barely eight hours to go until federal functions begin closing down, House Republicans were huddled in frantic meetings at the US Capitol to iron out the details and present the plan to Democrats.

A group of Republicans always votes against temporary funding patches with no spending cuts, meaning Johnson will almost certainly need Democratic support to make up for the shortfall in yes votes on his own side.

Any deal in the House would have to be rubber-stamped by the Senate, which could take days under the rules governing the upper chamber, unless members agree unanimously to waive normal procedure.

The latest attempt to break through the impasse would likely get a vote in the House on Friday afternoon, and would need two-thirds support rather than a simple majority under the House's own fast-track procedure.

Patty Murray, the Democrats' top senator on budget issues, said she was willing to stay in Washington "through Christmas" to ensure that the add-ons in the original bipartisan funding plan were reinstated.

Trump has been clear that he is happy for the government to shut down if he doesn't get his way.

With a stoppage for the weekend at least looking likely, the White House Office of Management and Budget was alerting agencies to prepare.

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