Republicans hatch new plan to split votes on government funding, debt limit, disaster aid

House Republicans on Friday began coalescing around a new plan to fund the government before the midnight deadline, preparing to vote on a temporary funding extension separate from other year-end priorities loaded into prior versions of the bill. 

The details were still being worked out Friday morning, lawmakers said, but the tentative plan is to split up votes on the disparate priorities and let them pass or fail on their own merits.

That would likely mean a stand-alone vote on a “clean” extension of current government funding levels through March 14, passing on its own with bipartisan support.

Then there could be a separate vote on roughly $100 billion in disaster aid both parties negotiated to provide relief for communities ravaged by hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters.

Another vote could be on $10 billion in economic aid to farmers, tied to an extension of the farm bill that authorizes various agriculture and nutrition programs. 

Finally, Republicans will likely include a stand-alone vote to suspend the debt limit, as President-elect Donald Trump has demanded occur before he takes office. 

It’s unclear how long that debt limit suspension may last and if Democrats would vote for it.

A plan that House Republican leaders and Mr. Trump agreed to on Thursday combining government funding, disaster aid and the farm provisions included a two-year suspension of the debt limit. But the president-elect signaled he wants to go further. 

“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” he posted on social media in the 1 a.m. hour Friday. “Without this, we should never make a deal. Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President.”

House Republicans were to meet Friday afternoon so leaders could pitch the plan to the full conference and ensure its support before bringing it to the floor after the spectacular defeat of their Thursday plan. 

While House Speaker Mike Johnson and fellow Republicans hammered out a new deal, Democrats were looped in even though GOP lawmakers insisted their deal didn’t involve the other party. 

“This is a Republican House,” GOP Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee said. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, told members of his caucus Friday morning that the lines of communication were again opened up with Republicans after over 24 hours of radio silence from the other side of the aisle. 

“It’s astonishing to me that they didn’t call before yesterday’s vote,” Rep. Glenn Ivey, Maryland Democrat, told The Washington Times. “Because that’s the same mistake that Kevin McCarthy made, and that’s why he got bounced” from his position as House speaker in October 2023.

Democrats have still not seen the GOP’s new plan, and a question is whether they will coalesce around it. Many would still prefer the initial bipartisan agreement.

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters that even if Republicans could “cobble together” votes from within their own party, they need Democratic support to get it through the Senate. 

“It’s basically Speaker Johnson negotiating with Elon Musk and Donald Trump and acting like the rest of us don’t exist, and that’s going to be a problem,” Mr. Smith said.