Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Washington — House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a revolt from his fellow Republicans over a last-minute measure to keep the government funded into the spring and avoid a shutdown, with an increasing number of allies — including President-elect Donald Trump — objecting to billions of dollars in spending that have been added to the bill.Lawmakers are facing a Friday deadline to approve new spending. The stopgap funding measure released Tuesday would extend funding through March 14, but it also includes disaster aid, health care policy extenders and a pay raise for members of Congress, among other provisions. The disaster relief portion of the bill alone carries a price tag of $110 billion.In a statement on Wednesday, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance criticized Johnson’s approach and said Republicans should pass “a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.” They also called for House Republicans to increase the debt ceiling, which limits how much the government can borrow to pay its bills. “Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling,” they said. “Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”The debt ceiling has not been a part of these negotiations, and Republicans typically oppose increasing it. Trump’s decision to inject the issue into shutdown talks adds a new dimension to the legislative fight with just two days to go before funding lapses.
“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch,” Trump and Vance wrote. “If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now.”The continuing resolutionWhen it was unveiled on Tuesday, the spending legislation immediately sparked anger from multiple members of the House Republican conference, mostly targeted at Johnson. While the speaker had pledged to avoid the kind of massive, end-of-year spending bills that conservatives loathe, the final product resembled a scaled-down version of what the party’s right flank has railed against for years now.But the Republicans’ slim majority in the House means Johnson will need Democratic votes to pass the bill, a dynamic that gave the minority more leverage to extract concessions during negotiations. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries hinted at Democrats’ influence amid reports that Johnson could scale back the bill, writing in a post on X: “You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”Johnson acknowledged that the bill was intended to be “very skinny” before a “couple of intervening things” occurred, citing the devastation left by hurricanes earlier this year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson arrives at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 17, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Before the text of the bill was released, Johnson dismissed Republican concerns that the continuing resolution was equivalent to an “omnibus” bill, a term used when Congress packages the annual appropriations bills that fund many federal government agencies into one large piece of legislation.
“This is not an omnibus, OK?” Johnson said at his weekly news conference on Tuesday. “This is a small [continuing resolution] that we had to add things to that were out of our control. These are not man-made disasters. These are things that the federal government has an appropriate role to do.” Johnson had also vowed to give members 72 hours to read the bill before a vote, but lawmakers said they were expecting a vote as soon as Wednesday, which would give them less than 24 hours to get through the nearly 1,550-page text. The path forward was cast into doubt by Trump’s statement, with speculation growing that Johnson could scrap the current version of the bill and bring up a narrower funding extension that includes disaster relief.Rep. Eric Burlison, a Missouri Republican, on Tuesday called the process “a total dumpster fire.” He said he was “disappointed” in Johnson and called on him to “communicate better.” Other members, like Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, have dubbed the bill the “Cramnibus.” Rep. Kat Cammack, a Florida Republican, said the measure was “a band-aid that is laced with fentanyl.” “There’s a certain sandwich that’s made of feces, and that’s what I would compare this to,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, also of Florida. She argued that pairing disaster relief with the measure puts members in a tough spot. “This is a s**t sandwich. I don’t know how else to say that we’re being forced into this position.” The fight could prompt a challenge to Johnson’s speakership when the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, said Wednesday that he won’t support Johnson in the speaker’s election.”I’m not voting for him,” Massie said. “This solidifies it.” Massie said he’s spoken with other members who have a similar stance.
Johnson has run into a buzzsaw of opposition outside the House as well. Elon Musk, the co-head of Trump’s advisory Department of Government Efficiency, said in a post on X that any lawmaker “who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years.” Musk posted dozens of times throughout the day calling for lawmakers to oppose the bill, which he called “criminal.”The speaker told Fox News earlier in the day that he had discussed the situation with Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the other DOGE co-head, on Tuesday evening. Johnson said he emphasized to them that passing a continuing resolution now would be “clearing the decks” and allow the incoming GOP majorities to “put our fingerprints on the spending” in March. Both Musk and Ramaswamy came out strongly against the bill anyway.The stopgap measure would expire about two months into Trump’s second term, setting up another budget fight as Republicans try to pass Trump’s top priorities during his first 100 days. Though they’ll have control of both chambers of Congress, House Republicans will be operating with a thinner majority until vacant seats held by members joining the Trump administration are filled.
Jaala Brown
contributed to this report.
More from CBS News
Kaia Hubbard
Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.
