This story has been updated.
The U.S. Senate approved a continuing resolution just after the midnight deadline, joining House lawmakers in narrowly avoiding a government shutdown and punting budget negotiations to the first two months of Donald Trump’s presidency.
The bill, which includes funding for basic government operations, as well as $100 billion in hurricane disaster aid and $10 billion in farmer subsidies, passed the Senate in an 85-11 vote, and was signed by President Joe Biden on Saturday.
The continuing resolution, a temporary funding measure to keep the federal government fully operational, earlier passed on Friday afternoon in a 366-34 vote in the House, easily clearing the two-thirds threshold needed for fast-tracked legislation.
Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney were among the 11 “no” votes in the Senate.
Lee said the latest agreement was better than the earlier agreement, which he called a “1547-page disaster.” But, he said, “Unfortunately, it still contained $111 billion in deficit spending, with no corresponding cuts. I could not vote for it in good conscience.”
In a social media post, Romney said, “While I support keeping government open, I voted no on the CR—a simple protest of the absurd way this is to run government.”
Utah’s all-Republican House delegation supported the Christmas-time spending push with the exception of outgoing Rep. John Curtis, of the state’s 3rd Congressional District. After rejecting a Trump-backed continuing resolution (CR) proposal on Thursday, Sen.-elect Curtis said he could not stomach approving new expenditures without including spending cuts to offset them.
“We simply cannot treat these manufactured shutdown-showdowns as a blank check for more spending,” Curtis said in an explanation of his final vote in Congress’ lower chamber before he enters the Senate. “I have six kids and seventeen grandkids, and like every parent and grandparent, I want to leave them a stronger, more secure future. That’s why I’m deeply concerned about the out-of-control spending in Washington — it has to stop.”
“In Utah, we teach our children the importance of living within their means and avoiding unnecessary debt,” Curtis said. “It’s a principle embedded in our state’s constitution, and I believe it’s one we should hold ourselves to at the federal level. It is a time for different kind of conversation when it comes to spending that leads to consensus and a more prosperous America.”
The art of the messy deal
The final deal, hashed out by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, followed a three-day whirlwind of failed votes, scuttled proposals and backroom negotiations that have become a common feature of Johnson’s tenure at the head of an extremely narrow GOP majority.
But the usual end-of-year funding frenzy was made more complicated by inconsistent interference from the president-elect and outside pressure from Trump’s government efficiency czars, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a wealthy entrepreneur and former presidential candidate.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., makes a brief statement after a Capitol Hill meeting as the House works on a spending bill to avert a shutdown of the federal government, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Washington. | John McDonnell
Johnson’s initial plan, released on Wednesday after months of dealmaking with Democratic leadership, was scrapped within 48 hours as Musk, Ramaswamy and others took to Musk’s social media platform, X, to criticize the 1,500-page bill that they said was filled with unnecessary “pork” having nothing to do with federal government operations, including Democratic funding priorities and political pet projects like moving a stadium to Washington, D.C.
Following Musk and Ramaswamy’s lead, Trump also came out in opposition to the bill. In a move that surprised many of Trump’s more fiscally conservative supporters, he suggested that Johnson craft a trimmed-down alternative that included a two-year extension of the nation’s debt ceiling without any cost-saving reforms.
This proposal was seen as a way to stop the need for a messy debt ceiling battle next year as Trump tries to negotiate the renewal of his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and new immigration policies.
While Johnson delivered on the request, the bill came up well short of the necessary two-thirds majority on Thursday evening when 38 Republicans, who refused to lift the ceiling on the nation’s debt by at least $4 trillion without any spending cuts, joined 197 Democrats in voting “no.”
Rep. Blake Moore, of Utah’s 1st Congressional District, joined Curtis as one of the 38 Republicans to tank Trump’s proposal. Moore’s vote came even as he has risen up the ranks in GOP leadership, where he serves as conference vice chair.
Moore, who has consistently campaigned on “reversing Washington’s debt culture,” said his “no” on Thursday switched to a “yes” on Friday because of the removal of the debt ceiling increase and the addition of firm commitments about budget cuts that will occur next year.
“I believe that any debt limit increase should be accompanied by a commitment to tackle our federal debt crisis,” Moore said. “With Republican majorities in the House and Senate, President Trump in the White House, and the ambitions of DOGE, we have a great opportunity before us to implement critical cost-saving measures, root out wasteful spending, deliver relief from inflation to hardworking families, and make real budgetary reforms that make our government more effective and keep more money in Americans’ pockets.”
Rep. Maloy: The more debate the better
Rep. Celeste Maloy, of Utah’s 2nd Congressional District, supported both Thursday’s continuing resolution (CR) with the debt ceiling increase, and Friday’s “clean” CR. This was the first time during her year in Congress that she has supported a short term funding extension, Maloy said in an interview with the Deseret News.
While Republicans are typically opposed to increasing the cap on how much debt the nation can accumulate, Maloy said she and most of her colleagues were prepared to pass Trump’s proposition because the president-elect had shown his commitment to cutting spending with the creation of Musk and Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“Some of us in the conference felt like we should give him some runway to implement those changes,” Maloy said. “Other people in the conference felt like they needed some more solid promises of what the end result would be, but we’re all working towards the same goal, and it took us a couple of tries to get there, and that’s a good thing.”
Johnson’s third and final temporary funding package was by far the simplest, containing an extension of current government funding levels until March 14, disaster aid for the hurricane-hammered Southeast and subsidies for farmers hit hard by inflation.
During negotiations over the final version of the continuing resolution, Johnson promised that the upcoming debt ceiling debate would combine a $1.5 trillion increase to the borrowing limit and a $2.5 trillion reduction to mandatory spending, a category which includes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Despite the public display of division within the GOP conference over the last week, Maloy said the ups and downs of the latest debate over spending are actually a good sign for the incoming Republican trifecta.
Republicans with vastly different opinions and constituencies were able to conduct substantive conversations about spending reforms that resulted in a good deal bridging the gap until a new presidential administration is sworn in, Maloy said.
“I think it shows that we’re all willing to go out and let our voices be heard and hammer out ideas until we get to a solution,” Maloy said. “And it’s something we’re really familiar with in Utah, when Republicans hold all of the levers, which we’re about to in Washington, D.C., then you have a lot of debate between Republicans, and it’s healthy.”
Moving into 2025, it will take a new Republican majority in the Senate and a new Republican White House some time to get organized and to confirm Trump’s appointments, so much of the initial policy work will come from the House, according to Maloy, who said voters should expect big reforms on spending and permitting in 2025.
“We’re trying to make some fundamental changes to how government does its work,” Maloy said. “Don’t get too caught up in the drama and the chaos. Look at the bigger picture. All of these debates are taking us to a better place, where government’s more responsive to people and people have more individual freedoms.”
Contributing: Suzanne Bates