UNPAID WORKERS
A shutdown would cause the closure of federal agencies and national parks, limiting public services and furloughing potentially hundreds of thousands of workers without pay over Christmas.
As time ran short, House Republicans and Democrats gathered separately to begin the seemingly impossible task of coming up with a Plan B with just hours to spare.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was being criticized from all sides for having misjudged his own members’ tolerance for the bill’s spiralling costs, and for allowing himself to have been blindsided by Musk and Trump.
He is expected to introduce a slimmed-down funding patch, attaching a borrowing limit and removing most of the add-ons.
But Democrats, who control the Senate, have little political incentive to help Republicans and say they will only vote for the agreed package, meaning Trump’s party will have to go it alone.
This is something the fractious, divided party – which can afford to lose only a handful of members in any House vote – has not managed in any major bill in this Congress.
Asked if Democrats would support a pared-back bill with an extended borrowing cap, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries offered little hope that he would bail Johnson out.
