“We will not have a government shutdown,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters.
Details of the plan were still unknown, and it was not clear whether it would draw the support of Democrats, whose cooperation will be needed to extend funding past midnight Friday (Dec 20), when it is due to expire.
A bipartisan plan rejected by President-elect Donald Trump earlier this week would have kept the government funded at roughly its US$6.2 trillion current annual rate, providing an additional US$100 billion in disaster aid for storm-hit states and another US$10 billion for farmers.
Trump demanded a rewrite to also lift the nation’s debt ceiling, and that bill was resoundingly rejected by the House – including 38 Republicans – on Thursday.
Johnson said the new package would provide aid for disaster victims and farmers and ensure that federal workers will continue to be paid. He did not provide specific figures.
The federal government currently has more than US$36 trillion in debt, and Congress will need to act to authorise further borrowing by the middle of next year.
Two Republican lawmakers said the new bill would not address the debt ceiling. Multiple media outlets, citing sources, reported that Republican lawmakers in a closed-door meeting agreed to address the debt ceiling next year.
Several Republican leaders said the House would vote later on Friday. The Democratic-majority Senate also would have to approve the package and President Joe Biden would then have to sign it into law.
Representative Steve Scalise, the No 2 House Republican, said lawmakers had been in touch with Trump but did not say whether he supported the new plan.
If Congress does not pass a spending package, funding for everything from law enforcement to national parks will be disrupted and millions of federal workers will go unpaid.
