Congress avoids a shutdown, but leaves ‘a big mess’ for Trump and Republicans in 2025

WASHINGTON – Congress struck an 11th-hour deal to avert a government shutdown over the holidays, but in the process extended an already extensive to-do list for the first year of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office.

The Financing Act keeps the government open until March 14. Although Republicans will control the White House, House and Senate, they will again need Democratic votes to end a shutdown in less than three months.

In addition, Trump’s demands that Congress extend or eliminate the debt ceiling to take it off his plate next year failed dramatically. On Wednesday, he threatened primary challenges against “any Republican” who voted to fund the government regardless of the debt limit. On Friday, 170 House Republicans defied him and did just that.

This week’s turmoil is an example of the legislative chaos that awaits Washington in the second Trump administration, when the incoming president faces a long list of big deadlines and ambitions.

Late. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Republicans made a mistake by committing the funding to March 14 and instead should have approved a bill to gap until the end of next September to clear their plate for Trump’s agenda.

“I think it’s kind of silly,” he said of the new deadline. “Don’t ask me to explain or defend this dysfunction.”

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said late Friday that the “lesson” of the past few days is: “Unity is our strength. Disagreement is the enemy of the conservative cause.”

He advised Trump and his team to avoid such a situation in the future by presenting legislative requirements “early” so the GOP can “air out any differences there are” well before a deadline.

“The House has to overcommunicate within our various factions,” Barr said. “The House has to overcommunicate with (incoming Senate) Majority Leader (John) Thune, and the House and Senate both have to overcommunicate with the administration.”

In the last four days, communication was particularly poor. A day after Speaker Mike Johnson released an initial bipartisan deal, Trump and his billionaire confidant Elon Musk blew it up. The speaker went through three more iterations of his plan to prevent a shutdown, ultimately succeeding after rejecting Trump’s most consequential — and last-minute — demands.

“I’m concerned,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who is up for re-election in 2026. “Obviously, we’ve seen this kind of chaos in the last two years. So I fully expect that we will see continue for the next two years and probably get even worse.”

On Thursday evening, Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., called it a “disjointed process” and said it’s a natural way for House Republicans and Trump’s team to understand “how to communicate with each other.”

“It’s going to be great. You know why it’s going to be great? Because now we know how to work together,” Van Orden said just before Speaker Johnson’s Plan B went up in flames in the House.

Van Orden’s Wisconsin counterpart, Senator Johnson, was less optimistic about plowing through the early part of the 2025 agenda smoothly.

“We’ve got a big mess on our hands, no question about it,” Johnson said. “That’s why I try to under-promise and hopefully over-deliver.”

In addition to another government funding deadline and a debt limit that must be resolved by mid-2025 to avert a catastrophic default, Trump and Republicans need to confirm his staff through the Senate, and they want to pass major bipartisan bills to shore up . immigration enforcement and extend his expiring 2017 tax bill.

“It’s not going to be boring,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, deadpanned when asked about the tasks facing Congress next year.

There’s also the question of Musk’s role after his part in scuttling the original bipartisan funding deal raised hackles across Capitol Hill.

“A lot of people on both sides of the aisle are deeply disturbed by a billionaire threatening people if they don’t vote the right way,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich..

Last week’s uproar “foreshadows something very ominous about next year,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., after the House vote, noting that the Republican majority in the lower chamber will be even smaller next year.

“I think we’re in for a lot of turbulence on the Republican side of the House because of the instability and chaos and disruption that Trump is embracing,” Connolly said.

He also wondered whether Republicans will be able to pick a speaker on Jan. 3 with a slim majority; It took 15 rounds of voting to choose a speaker at the start of the last Congress, and some hard-right Republicans are reeling over President Johnson after his handling of the shutdown threat this week.

“So I’m leaving tonight very uneasy about what we’ve just experienced,” Connolly said before Parliament adjourned for recess. “I think it’s very ominous and it’s terrible.”