WASHINGTON — Congress reached an 11th-hour deal to avoid a government shutdown over the holidays, but the process increased President-elect Donald Trump’s already extensive to-do list for his first year back in office.
The funding bill would keep the government open until March 14. Even if Republicans control the White House, House of Representatives and Senate, another Democratic vote would be needed to stop the shutdown within three months.
Moreover, Trump’s demand that Congress extend or repeal the debt ceiling to eliminate it next year failed spectacularly. On Wednesday, he threatened a primary challenge to “every Republican” who voted to fund the government without addressing the debt ceiling. On Friday, 170 House Republicans rejected him and did so.
This week’s chaos previews the legislative chaos awaiting Washington under a second Trump administration, as the president-elect faces a wide range of key deadlines and ambitions.
Republican Senator Ron Johnson said Republicans made a mistake by not providing funding by March 14 and should have instead approved stopgap legislation until the end of September next year to clean up Trump’s agenda.
“I think it’s a little silly,” he said of the new deadline. “Please don’t ask me to explain or defend this dysfunction.”
Republican Rep. Andy Barr said late Friday that the “lesson” of the past few days was “Unity is our strength. Disagreement is the enemy of the conservative cause.”
He advised President Trump and his team to avoid such situations in the future by presenting their legislative demands “early” so Republicans can “uncover any differences” well before the deadline.
“The House of Representatives needs hyper-communication within its various factions,” Barr said. “The House will have to over-communicate with (incoming Senate) Majority Leader (John) Thune, and both the House and Senate will have to over-communicate with the administration.”
Communication has been particularly poor over the past four days. A day after Chairman Mike Johnson announced the first bipartisan agreement, Trump and his billionaire associate Elon Musk blasted it. The speaker repeated his plan three more times to prevent a shutdown, ultimately succeeding after rejecting Trump’s most important, last-minute demands.
“I’m concerned,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who is up for re-election in 2026. “Obviously we’ve seen this kind of chaos over the last two years. I think this will continue and probably get worse over the next two years.”
On Thursday night, Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden downplayed what he called a “separate process,” saying it was a natural way for House Republicans and Trump’s team to understand “how they communicate with each other.”
“It’s going to be really cool. You know why it’s going to be awesome? Because now we know how to work together,” Van Orden said just before Chairman Johnson’s Plan B went up in flames in the House of Representatives.
Van Orden’s fellow Wisconsin representative, Senator Johnson, was less optimistic about getting the early parts of the 2025 agenda moving smoothly.
“We have a big problem on our hands, there’s no doubt about it,” Johnson said. “So I’m trying to underpromise and deliver more.”
In addition to another government funding deadline and a debt ceiling that must be met by mid-2025 to avoid a catastrophic default, Trump and Republicans need to get confirmation through the Senate, which they want to strengthen by passing major party legislation. Strengthens immigration enforcement and extends the expiring 2017 tax law.
“It won’t be boring,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said when asked about the challenges facing Congress next year.
Questions about Musk’s role in scuttling the original bipartisan financing deal have also sparked controversy across Capitol Hill.
Debbie Dingell, D-Mich. “Many people on both sides of the aisle are deeply disturbed by billionaires threatening people if they don’t vote the right way,” the congressman said.
After the House vote, Rep. Gary Connolly, D-Va., said last week’s turmoil “foreshadows something very ominous about to happen next year,” noting that the Republican majority in the House will shrink even further next year.
“I think there’s a lot of turmoil on the Republican side of the House because of the instability and chaos and chaos that President Trump is embracing,” Connolly said.
He also wondered whether Republicans would be able to elect a speaker on Jan. 3 with such a slim majority of the vote. It took 15 votes to choose a speaker at the start of the last Congress, and some far-right Republicans are wavering on Johnson as speaker after he handled the threat of a shutdown this week.
“So I leave tonight feeling very uneasy about what we have just experienced,” Connolly said before the House adjourned for the holiday. “I think it’s a very ominous, ominous thing.”
