Now to the other major headline on this Friday night,
the standoff over government funding.
The House voting to avert a shutdown which is hours
to spare.
2 earlier plans failed in the House after Elon Musk
and president-elect Trump rejected a bipartisan bill.
Speaker Mike Johnson introducing 1/3 plan the vote just a
short time ago.
AB CS chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl is on Capitol
Hill tonight.
With a government shutdown just hours away, House Republicans moved
to prevent a Christmas crisis that would have left millions
of federal workers without paychecks heading into the holidays, despite
pressure from billionaire Elon Musk and president-elect Donald Trump.
We will not have a government shutdown and we will
meet our obligations for our farmers who need aid for
the disaster victims all over the country and for making
sure that military and essential services and everyone who relies
upon the federal government for a paycheck is paid over
the holidays.
It came after Musk, followed by Trump, blew up the
bipartisan deal to keep the government funded through March.
Musk called the bill a crime bloated with waste, threatening
Republicans who supported it would be voted out of office.
Trump demanded Republicans add something unrelated, a provision to raise
the so-called debt ceiling, the limit on how much the
federal government can borrow, something that it will hit early
next year, potentially creating a crisis early in his presidency.
Telling Republicans without this, we should never make a deal.
Last night, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson tried to
give Trump his wish.
He failed.
38 Republicans voted, noting, no, the bill is not passed.
Today, leaders of both parties went back to the drawing
board.
The lines of communication have been reopened on the Senate
floor.
Mitch McConnell, in his farewell speech as Republican leader, warned
House Republicans they would be, quote, foolish to assume they
wouldn't be blamed for a shutdown.
Recent history doesn't leave a whole lot of room for
interpretation on that one.
When you try to use normal government function as a
bargaining chip, you pay the political price.
The bill still needs to pass the Senate.
That's expected to happen soon.
And this is a temporary bill.
It only funds the government through the middle of March,
and it doesn't include what Trump was demanding.
There is nothing in here to raise the debt ceiling
with.
Jonathan Karl for us on Capitol Hill.
Thank you.