WASHINGTON: The US Congress has just two days left to avert a partial government shutdown after President-elect Donald Trump rejected a bipartisan deal and demanded lawmakers to address the country’s debt ceiling before he assumes office next month.
Trump urged his fellow Republicans in Congress to reject a bill that would fund the government beyond the Friday midnight deadline (0500 GMT Saturday). He warned that any Republican who voted for the bipartisan bill should face primary challenges from within their own party in the 2026 midterm elections.
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson and the rest of his leadership team are trying to find a new bill that could win the support of both his sometimes unruly 219-211 majority and clear the Senate, where Democrats hold a 51-49 majority.
If there is no action from Congress, the US government will be shutdown partially which would interrupt funding for everything from air travel to law enforcement in the coming days.
“Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
If comes into effect, it would be the first shutdown since one that extended through December 2018 into 2019, during Trump’s first four-year term as the US President.
Trump is now pressing Congress to pass a bill that would tie up loose ends before he takes office next month by extending the government’s borrowing authority.
Congress adopted a limit on the amount of money the government could borrow in 1939, aiming to stem the increase in the government’s debt, however, it has not achieved its purpose and the federal debt has climbed to $36 trillion.
The debt ceiling has become a recurring point of political brinkmanship in Washington, and as a result, the nation periodically faces the risk of a potentially catastrophic default that could destabilise global markets.
Trump also urged lawmakers to remove provisions from the bipartisan deal supported by Democrats, whose backing will be necessary to pass the bill.
Meanwhile, Trump’s ally and the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, who has been enlisted by Trump to help reduce the federal budget, called on Congress to reject the bill and stated that those who support it should be voted out of office.
The bipartisan bill would continue funding government agencies at current levels and allocate $100 billion for disaster relief while providing $10 billion in farm aid. It also includes a variety of unrelated provisions, such as a pay raise for lawmakers and measures to address hidden hotel fees.
“It is dangerous for House Republicans to have folded to the demands of the richest man on the planet, who nobody elected after leaders in both parties came to an agreement to fund the government and provide this disaster aid,” Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee said in a statement on Thursday.
