Trump throws support behind new GOP spending package

After hours of uneasy negotiations, Republican leadership Thursday afternoon unveiled a stopgap spending package called a continuing resolution, or CR, that would avert a government shutdown set to kick in Friday evening.

The bill comes just one day after Republicans scrapped another version of the package. In practice, the two bills accomplish very similar goals. Thursday’s package, like its predecessor, would extend government funding through March 2025, provide a one-year lifeline for agriculture-related government programs, and provide $110 billion in emergency disaster relief.

But unlike the bill Republicans rejected, the new package is significantly smaller, totaling just 116 pages in length—a far cry from the 1,547-page bill U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., unveiled Tuesday evening.

Notably, the bill excludes many of the previous add-ons. It includes no pay raise for lawmakers, does not authorize the remains of the RFK Stadium in Washington D.C. for sale to the Washington Commanders, does not include reforms to Pharmacy Benefit Managers (BPMs), and omits additional provisions.

The “skinny CR,” as many Republicans are calling it, does have one key addition: it temporarily suspends the nation’s debt ceiling—the cap that limits how much the country can legally borrow—until Jan. 30, 2027. Under the terms of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the debt ceiling is presently suspended and is scheduled to be reinstated on Jan. 1, 2025.

That change was a key demand of President-elect Donald Trump who, unbeknownst to Republican leadership on Wednesday, said Congress should make the suspension a component of the package.

Trump took to social media just moments before the unveiling of the new bill, praising the package as a significant improvement over its previous iteration.

Does this bill mean there won’t be a government shutdown? It’s too early to tell if Democrats in the Senate will support the bill and whether President Joe Biden will sign it into law.

Democrats, who negotiated to include elements in the previous package they’re unlikely to get after a Trump administration takes office in January, decried the last-minute backtrack on the bipartisan negotiations. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., characterized the new package as an unserious effort and accused Republicans of putting the country on a path to shutdown.

Dig deeper: Cutting it a little close to the deadline, aren’t we? Yes—but that’s the way it was always going to be. Back in September, Congress passed a government extension that set up this week’s spending fight. You can read my reporting on that bill here.