A proposed bill to fund the federal government beyond this Friday is dead in the water after it was objected to by President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., shared with CNN that the spending bill negotiated by leadership in both the House and Senate would be scrapped after Musk spent the day whipping Republican votes against it. The bill was meant to avert a government shutdown on December 21.
“There’s no new agreement right now,” Scalise said, admitting that the original agreement was a no-go among House GOP hardliners.
Some Republicans soured on the deal to fund the government until mid-March as soon as it was released. The objections grew in number as Musk went on a day-long tirade against the bill, which he called a “scam” and a “crime.” The final nail in the coffin came when Trump released a statement painting the deal as a “betrayal of our country.”
Scalise told CNN that “there’s no new agreement right now” and admitted to working on a request to raise the debt ceiling that Trump made in his statement.
“We’ve been having some conversations about the debt limit, as relates to the [funding bill],” he said. “Those are ongoing conversations.”
Democratic House members expressed outrage at Musk’s perceived influence on Trump and legislators.
“An unelected billionaire was crowned co-President by the Republican Party,” Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., wrote on X, “They’ve given him the influence to make a damn post that throws a spending bill into limbo cause House Republicans are scared of him.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., called Musk a “shadow president” and said Trump was “follow[ing] his lead” in a post to X.
Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott was hopeful that a new agreement could be reached before the deadline on December 20.
“If there’s a goal of getting it done, absolutely,” he shared with CNN. “I mean, everybody can move fast if they want to get something done.”
Scott’s optimism runs counter to Trump’s marching orders, however. In a post to Truth Social, Trump said that any Republican who negotiates with Democrats to pass the stopgap funding measure “should, and will, be primaried.”
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