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Congress veers toward government shutdown after GOP revolt led by Trump, Musk
Washington — Congress’ path forward on government funding is in limbo after House Republicans, with the support of Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump, torpedoed an initial deal to avert a shutdown before a Friday night deadline.
The House descended into chaos Wednesday when the GOP revolt sank a last-minute funding measure to keep the government operating through early next year.
The massive end-of-year spending legislation immediately sparked anger from conservatives when it was unveiled late Tuesday. Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy referred to it on X as a “1,547-page Christmas tree,” while Rep. Kat Cammack, a Florida Republican, called it “a band-aid that is laced with fentanyl.”
The more than 1,500-page bill released Tuesday was far from a modest stopgap measure. In addition to extending government funding through March 14, it included disaster aid, health care policy extenders and a pay raise for members of Congress, among other provisions. The disaster relief portion of the bill came with a $110 billion price tag.
Elon Musk, the co-head of Trump’s advisory Department of Government Efficiency chimed in with a barrage of posts Wednesday calling the bill “criminal” and suggestions that Republicans who supported it did not belong in Congress. And the opposition culminated in statements from Trump lambasting the new spending and threatening a primary challenge against any Republican supporting the measure.
The president-elect called on Republicans to strip out the additional spending and added a new element instead — raising the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling, which limits how much the government can borrow to pay its bills, is suspended until the first quarter of next year, but Trump said he’d prefer to force President Biden to approve raising the debt ceiling so he wouldn’t have to sign it.
“I will fight ’till the end,” Trump wrote.
Top House Republicans met Wednesday night after the initial deal fell apart, but a new path forward remained unclear Thursday morning as Congress lurched toward Friday night’s deadline to fund the government.
Though stripping out most of the additional funding would satisfy many Republicans, Johnson is likely to need dozens of votes from Democrats, and some are already slamming Johnson for walking away from the agreement. They argue Republicans will shoulder any blame for a potential shutdown.
“Republicans have now unilaterally decided to break a bipartisan agreement that they made,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said Wednesday. “House Republicans will now own any harm that is visited upon the American people that results from a government shutdown or worse.”
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Spending fight throws Johnson’s speakership into question
The initial plan to keep the government funded and the chaos that surrounded it also prompted intense criticism of Johnson, including from members of his own party.
In addition to the slew of add-ons to the spending bill, conservatives are angry with Johnson for carrying out the negotiating process largely occurred outside of the view of rank-and-file members. Rep. Eric Burlison, a Missouri Republican, called the process “a total dumpster fire.”
A handful of Republicans indicated their support for Johnson’s speakership in the new Congress is now in question, and with such a narrow majority, it would take only a few to take him down. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, said flatly Wednesday that he won’t support Johnson in the speaker’s election.
“I’m not voting for him,” Massie said. “This solidifies it.”
In November, House Republicans backed Johnson to lead for another two years during their leadership elections. But the full chamber will vote to elect a speaker on Jan. 3. During the last speaker fight at the beginning of a new Congress in 2023, the slim Republican majority took 15 rounds to elect former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted from the role nine months later, partly due to his handling of government funding.
Still, Johnson generally enjoys more favor than McCarthy with the president-elect, who wields widespread influence over House Republicans. Trump told Fox News Digital on Thursday that Johnson would “easily remain speaker” if he “acts decisively and tough” and eliminates “all of the traps being set by Democrats” in the spending package.
North Pole, Alaska — ‘Twas the week before Christmas and plenty was stirring at the Santa Claus House in the city of North Pole, Alaska.
The iconic Christmas-themed store checked its list twice, realizing that it is far more naughty than nice if any of the gifts it sends out arrive late to their destinations around the globe.
“People are used to waiting until the very last minute to shop online, which presents a challenge for us having to process that order and ship it out from Alaska,” said Paul Brown, manager of the Santa Claus House, which for decades has been sending thousands of annual Santa letters to children worldwide.
In North Pole, which is located about 13 miles southeast of Fairbanks, candy canes double as street lights, and Christmas takes on special meaning for resident and FedEx driver Bill Soplu.
“Yeah, this is a wonderful time of the year,” Soplu said. “Everybody’s so happy right now, so it makes our job a lot easier.”
The cold weather doesn’t diminish Souplou’s cheer.
“Just the other day it was 30 above, you know, and then you wake up the next morning, it’s 30 below,” he said.
Nor do the moose.
“We don’t want to mess around with those guys,” he adds.
The gifts Soplu is delivering come from an airfield 20 miles down a frozen road. There are only a few hours of daylight in Fairbanks during the winter months, and the temperature hovers around zero.
An average of 3,000 packages a day come through Fairbanks during the holiday season. Capt. Joseph Erikson is a delivery pilot for FedEx.
“I know there’s a good chance there’s a special present on that plane, and it’s important to get that to that family,” Erikson told CBS News.
Before they reach Fairbanks, shipments from around the world first come through a sprawling FedEx sorting center at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
During the holidays, there are 33 delivery planes a day which fly in and out of Anchorage carrying about 80,000 packages. The planes run around the clock so gifts can span the globe in as little as 24 hours.
“We’ve been putting these plans in place for months so we can make sure we’re getting those packages to our customers,” said David Lewis, senior manager for surface operations for FedEx in Alaska.
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Houston — Donna Thomas is a pollution warrior in Houston, Texas. She wears a mask because she believes a lifetime of breathing polluted air in her community contributed to a stroke four years ago.
Near her home, Thomas points out Texas’ largest coal-fired power plant.
“It’s the oldest thing you can be burning in our neighborhoods. It’s dangerous,” Thomas said.
To respond to communities like hers, the Environmental Protection Agency under President Biden created a new Office of Environmental Justice. It is staffed by 200 people and funded by more than $2.8 billion that goes directly to “disadvantaged, marginalized, and over-polluted communities,” including support for projects that allow neighborhoods to monitor their own air quality.
But Project 2025, a possible roadmap for President-Elect Donald Trump, recommends “eliminating the EPA’s stand-alone Office of Environmental Justice.”
“We already know that everybody’s concerned. We want our EPA to be stronger,” Thomas said.
But that is unlikely, as Trump has vowed to “cut ten old regulations for every one new regulation.”
Many business and industry leaders say environmental regulation is anti-competitive and costs them money. In his first term, Trump cut 100 environmental regulations. Just last week, he posted on social media that “any person or company investing one billion dollars… in the United States, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including…all environmental approvals.”
Daniel Cohan, a professor and researcher at Rice University, sits on one of the EPA’s scientific advisory boards and is skeptical of the claim that environmental regulations stifle business.
“We’ve seen the oil and gas industry prosper and produce more oil and gas than ever before, even with EPA regulations,” Cohan said.
Since the EPA first started regulating clean air in the 1970s, emissions of the most common air pollutants have dropped by almost 80%. But around Houston, there’s still a long way to go. Each year, the pollution from that power plant is responsible for 177 premature deaths, a 2018 Rice University study found.
In a statement to CBS News, the plant owner, NRG, wrote: “…We have a strict policy of complying with all environmental rules and regulations and proud of our environmental record.”
Thomas believes that protecting the environment isn’t a partisan issue.
“Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, you should be protected from all the environmental issues, but you’re not because there’s no justice out here for people,” Thomas said.
And she’s convinced over the next four years that environmental regulation and enforcement will be harder to come by.
