Principals

Congress steers away from a damaging shutdown

The US is on track to narrowly avoid a damaging government shutdown that lasts into Monday, but only after House Republicans had to again seek Democratic support following two days of self-inflicted political wounds.

Congress is now moving ahead with a plan to fund the government until mid-March, along with a package of hundreds of millions of dollars in disaster and farm aid. Importantly, the legislation abandons Donald Trump’s demand that Congress deal with the expiration of the debt ceiling before he takes office, which Republicans’ own members rejected earlier this week.

House Speaker Mike Johnson “got bush-whacked with that,” Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., told Semafor of Trump’s insistence on addressing the debt limit as part of any funding bill.

The House cleared the legislation, 366-34, on Friday evening. It now heads over to the Senate — where the agreement among all 100 senators that is required to pass it by midnight may not materialize, but where passage before Monday morning is near-guaranteed.