House Republicans are moving ahead with a new, pared-down version of their spending bill that includes a two-year suspension of the debt ceiling, but initial indications were that Democrats didn’t plan to go along with the GOP proposal.
“It’s a laughable proposal,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in response to a question from NOTUS about the new bill — an early but strong sign that Democrats won’t vote for the Republican bill. And if that’s the case, Congress could be headed to a standoff and a protracted government shutdown.
After about 24 hours of uncertainty, Republicans announced their intention Thursday to vote on a bill that would extend government funding for three months, provide an additional $110 billion in disaster aid, reauthorize the current farm bill for one year and extend a number of expiring health policies, according to a source with knowledge of the agreement.
The bill also would freeze the debt limit for two years, allowing Congress to rack up untold billions in new debt without a new authorization or new spending cuts — a potential red line for some conservatives and some Democrats who suddenly feel like they’re giving Donald Trump a free concession after he demanded Congress extend the debt limit on Joe Biden’s watch.
While much of the new bill is a recycled version of the legislation that Speaker Mike Johnson and Democrats already agreed to, the new measure would get rid of two controversial provisions that led to significant pushback from the right: a member pay raise and health care language that gives members of Congress greater latitude to opt out of Obamacare and select health care coverage through the Federal Employee Health Benefits program, according to the source with knowledge of the agreement.
The new bill would also eliminate provisions that would have required pharmacy benefit managers to pass along 100% of drug rebate savings to consumers. The agreement stripped out a provision that would have transferred the RFK Stadium from federal government control to Washington, D.C., the source said.
Within minutes, Trump endorsed the deal in a post on Truth Social saying “SUCCESS in Washington! Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good Deal for the American People.”
But it didn’t seem as if Johnson actually had a deal.
Jeffries’ initial reaction didn’t portend well for actually passing the bill. And as Democrats learned more about the offer, it didn’t seem as if Republicans would get much help in passing the legislation.
In an emergency meeting Thursday night, Jeffries reviewed the GOP offer and said, “Hell no!”
Democratic members then started chanting “Hell no!” with him.
Several House Democrats told NOTUS on Thursday that leaders weren’t at the negotiating table with Republicans. And while some also quietly signaled openness to a pared-back continuing resolution, the new provisions on the debt limit alone appeared to be a problem for Democrats — particularly if they weren’t getting anything back in return.
Democrats signaled early opposition to the offer.
Rep. Annie Kuster, the retiring chair of the New Democrat Coalition, told NOTUS she wouldn’t support the new plan.
“The whole purpose of it is for tax cuts for billionaires,” she said. “And I’m not here representing billionaires. Elon Musk is not my constituent.”
Rep. Judy Chu also said she resented that Republicans had left Democrats out of the negotiations.
“Rather than being imposed on us,” she said, “they should have bipartisan negotiations. Once again, they are just bowing to Trump.”
“We were totally left out of it all,” she added, specifically taking issue with the new debt ceiling provisions.
And Democratic senators were also expressing some skepticism.
“My first reaction is we already have an agreement,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Thursday afternoon. “We should stick with it.”
The Democratic caucus meeting Thursday night didn’t appear to be going any better. Democrats were already emerging in united opposition.
The question was whether Johnson would go back to the drawing board or just try to blame Democrats for the plan’s failure.
Either way, it’s clear Johnson has seen enough from Trump and Elon Musk that he doesn’t plan to abide by the original deal.
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Riley Rogerson and Reese Gorman are reporters at NOTUS.
Tinashe Chingarande is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
Katherine Swartz, Ben T.N. Mause, Calen Razor and Mark Alfred, who contributed to this report, are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.
Oriana González, who is a reporter at NOTUS, also contirbuted to this report.