US Shutdown Crisis Avoided '40 Minutes Over'... Trump's Demand 'Failed' [Lee Sang-eun's Washington Now]

Photo = Shutterstock

The United States Congress passed a temporary budget bill 40 minutes past the deadline for a federal government shutdown on the 21st (local time). President Joe Biden immediately signed the budget, narrowly avoiding a shutdown crisis for the U.S. government. The demand by President-elect Donald Trump to abolish the debt ceiling was not included in this budget.

The U.S. Senate passed the temporary budget bill at 12:40 a.m., allowing the federal government to use the current level of budget until March 14 next year, with 85 votes in favor and 11 against. Following the passage in the House with 366 votes in favor and 34 against the previous day at 6 p.m., the Senate's approval prevented a temporary halt in government spending.

Technically, a shutdown could be considered to have occurred for 40 minutes, but the White House explained, "The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) halted shutdown preparations as Congress passed the relevant budget and the President was expected to sign it soon," adding, "Since the execution and tracking of federal funds are done on a daily basis, each agency can continue normal operations without a shutdown."

While situations where the budget is not passed until just before a shutdown have often occurred in the U.S. Congress, this time the situation was complicated by demands from President-elect Trump and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, to overturn the bipartisan agreement. President-elect Trump stated on Truth Social, "If a shutdown is to happen, it should be during the Biden administration, not after my inauguration on January 20 next year," arguing that the "ridiculous" debt ceiling should be abolished or extended until 2029.

Musk was even more vocal than Trump. He posted over 150 messages on social media X, criticizing the bipartisan agreement as wasteful. He also threatened that "lawmakers who support the agreement should be expelled from Congress." The Republican Party proposed a new budget reflecting their demands, but it was rejected due to dissenting votes within the party, as many did not agree with abolishing the debt ceiling. Both sides then created a new budget excluding the debt ceiling abolition, which narrowly passed.

During this process, a clear difference in views between the incoming administration and Republican lawmakers emerged. Mark Short, who worked as a legislative aide in the Trump administration's White House, told the Washington Post, "The message of 'Oppose this bill, it's wasteful spending. But let's abolish the debt ceiling to spend more' is the most contradictory."

It is true that the 'number of words' in the final passed bill was significantly reduced. The bipartisan agreement was originally 1,500 pages, but the final passed bill was only about 100 pages. However, major budgets such as the $100 billion disaster relief budget and the $10 billion farmer support budget were mostly included as they were. The deleted parts included regulations on hidden fees for consumer protection, a pediatric cancer research support program, the relocation of the RFK Stadium site to DC, and compensation for food stamp theft victims, according to the Washington Post and others. Also, the provision to increase lawmakers' living expenses from $174,000 to $180,600 by 3.8% was excluded from the final bill. However, U.S. media reports that these changes did not significantly alter the budget size.

The provision to restrict investments in China was also omitted from the final bill. Democratic lawmakers suspect it was omitted due to Musk's interests, as he has large-scale investments in China. Instead, the Republican Party reportedly agreed to independently raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion next year and reduce future government spending by $2.5 trillion.

Musk and others are self-proclaiming 'victory,' saying they got what they wanted despite the exclusion of the debt ceiling abolition from the final bill. Upon hearing the news of the passage, Musk wrote, "The voice of the people is the voice of God (VOX POPULI / VOX DEI)."

Washington Correspondent Lee Sang-eun selee@hankyung.com