CNN
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The House is expected to vote Thursday on a new GOP proposal to avert a government shutdown, but the measure faces major headwinds amid opposition from top Democrats as the threat of a shutdown intensifies.
Democrats are frustrated and angry after Donald Trump sunk a bipartisan deal and Republicans scrambled to find a plan B to satisfy the president-elect’s eleventh-hour spending demands. Government funding expires at the end of the day on Friday.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told House Democrats in a closed-door meeting, “I’m not just a no, I’m a hell no,” when it comes to the new proposal negotiated exclusively among Republicans, according to a source in the room. And not only is leadership opposed, they are whipping members against it.
The GOP measure includes a three-month extension of government funding, a two-year suspension of the debt limit into January 2027, as well as roughly $110 billion for disaster relief, according to five sources.
Trump upended the government funding effort on Wednesday when he came out against the bipartisan plan that House Speaker Mike Johnson had backed, setting off a scramble among Republicans for a plan B. Trump is now demanding that any deal to avert a shutdown also address the looming debt limit, a complex issue that typically requires weeks to months of painstaking negotiations on Capitol Hill to resolve.
Trump said Thursday that he supports the new GOP proposal, saying on Truth Social, “All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country, and vote “YES” for this Bill, TONIGHT!”
But Democrats are arguing that the two-year suspension of the debt limit will help Trump pass his tax plan, and they aren’t willing to make it easier for him given their opposition to it, according to a source familiar.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, a Democrat from New York and a close ally of Hakeem Jeffries, said he sees no reason for Democrats to provide votes for Johnson’s redrafted spending bill.
“No, I think we negotiated the deal in good faith,” Meeks told CNN when asked if Democrats should support the bill.
“We negotiated,” he added. “That should be the bill that goes over to the Senate.”
The sentiment is reflected in many corners of the Democratic Party. A half-dozen Democratic lawmakers told CNN after the release of the new GOP proposal that they did not believe they would support the plan.
House Republicans are expecting to bring the new proposal to the floor under a maneuver that would require two-thirds of the majority to pass, multiple sources told CNN.
This effort of trying to pass the bill under what is known as suspension is expected to fail because it would require a significant number of Democrats to support it in order to clear that two-thirds threshold. But if the bill fails in the vote, that doesn’t mean the effort has failed completely.
Republicans could then try to pass the bill through a simple majority, which would also be tough but would require less Democratic support.
This story and headline have been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Danya Gainor contributed to this report.
