Senate Passes Bill Averting Government Shutdown

The vote followed days of chaos in the Republican-controlled House, which served as a precursor of things to come next year.

WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a bill early Saturday morning that will avert a costly government shutdown by keeping it operating into March and provide more than $100 billion in disaster aid for storm-wracked states across the country.

The 85-11 vote on the legislation followed days of chaos in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which struggled to reach agreement on a spending bill after objections to certain provisions from President-elect Donald Trump and mega-billionaire Elon Musk.

In the end, Democrats denied Trump a key priority: a hike in the government’s borrowing authority that he demanded to make life easier for himself as he prepares to pass another round of costly tax cuts during his second term in the White House. Trump even threatened to find primary election challengers for GOP lawmakers who opposed hiking the debt ceiling but was rebuffed by the overwhelming majority of his party.

Trump stayed quiet as the Republican yea votes in the House ― 170 of them ― rolled in on Friday and was reportedly unhappy the bill didn’t contain his main demand, according to Semafor’s Burgess Everett.

“The president has been very vocal about what he wants. He wants a debt limit, he wants it done before he gets into office … and the first thing he’s asked us to do, we are not able to deliver. That’s a problem,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a top Trump ally, told HuffPost.