US Congress scrambles to try to avert looming shutdown after Trump demand rejected
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More than three dozen Republicans rejected a demand by President-elect Donald Trump that would lift the nation's debt ceiling.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON – The US Congress was scrambling to avert a partial government shutdown on Dec 20, hours after more than three dozen Republicans rejected a demand by President-elect Donald Trump to use the measure to lift the nation’s debt ceiling.
Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson was trying to plot a course that could pass both his Chamber, with narrow Republican control, and the Democratic-majority Senate, as a Dec 20 funding deadline loomed at midnight.
“We have a plan,” Mr Johnson told reporters at the Capitol on Dec 20. “We’re expecting votes this morning.”
Conservative Republicans on Dec 19 rejected Trump’s demand to lift the debt limit, which could add trillions more to the government’s US$36 trillion (S$49 trillion) in debt.
Trump, who takes office in a month, overnight ratcheted up his rhetoric, calling for a five-year suspension of the US debt ceiling even after members of his party’s right flank balked at an earlier two-year extension.
“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous debt ceiling. Without this, we should never make a deal,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform shortly after 1am local time.
An earlier bipartisan deal was scuttled after Trump and his ally, billionaire Elon Musk – the world’s richest person – came out against it on Dec 18. A hastily revised alternative backed by Trump then failed by a vote of 174-235 on the night of Dec 19.
That revised measure generally would keep the roughly US$6.2 trillion federal budget running at its current level through March and provided US$100 billion in disaster relief. But it dropped other measures included to appease Democrats, who still control the US Senate and the White House for four more weeks.
The White House has said President Joe Biden opposed the reworked Bill.
Previous fights over the debt ceiling have spooked financial markets, as a US government default would send credit shocks around the world. The limit has been suspended under an agreement that technically expires on Jan 1, though lawmakers likely would not have had to tackle the issue before spring. REUTERS
