The House tried to pass a continuing resolution packed with pork spending in its usual fashion, but the intervention of President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy torpedoed the bill and the lower chamber approved a revised version less than 10% of the original’s length.
Its passage presented only a partial win for Trump as it excluded a provision he sought to suspend the debt limit, which would have permitted him to avoid a contentious fight in the legislature during his term.
The lower chamber initially planned to vote on a 1,547-page bill that included a litany of what Trump called “Democratic giveaways” such as a pay raise for lawmakers. Public outrage, however, led lawmakers to scrap the bill in favor of a shorter, 116-page version that also included a provision to raise the debt ceiling. That measure failed in a Thursday vote, with considerable Republican defections.
