As the deadline approached this Friday evening local time, the USA federal government entered a countdown phase for shutdown, as Republicans in Congress made a last-ditch effort.

On December 20, Friday, Eastern Time, in Post-Market Trading, the USA House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly by 366 votes in favor to 34 against, passing a short-term government spending bill that would ensure the USA federal government continues to receive funding, extending the funding period from this Friday evening to mid-March next year.

According to CCTV reports, the latest bill is almost identical to the one that failed to pass in the House on Thursday, but it removed the section regarding the debt ceiling, leaving three main parts: a short-term extension of government spending, billions in disaster relief funds, and additional assistance for farmers in the Agriculture sector.

After passing the House, the bill was submitted to the Senate, and the government shutdown can only be truly avoided if the Senate also votes to pass the bill. It remains unclear whether the Senate can complete the voting and pass the bill before Saturday.

If no related short-term spending bill is passed by local time Saturday at 12:01 a.m., the USA federal government will partially shut down, and hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be forced to take leave.

Before this, during the midday trading hours of the USA stock market, according to Fox News, Republican negotiators in the House reached a preliminary agreement to avoid a government shutdown. The agreement includes a short-term extension of the validity period for federal government funding this year, disaster relief funds, and support for farmers in the Agriculture sector; however, these contents are not concentrated in one bill, but are spread across three separate bills.

It was reported that after the closed-door meeting where House Republican leaders presented related plans, House Speaker and Republican member Mike Johnson stated that there would be a full House vote on Friday and promised that a government shutdown would not happen.

We will not let the government shut down; we will fulfill our obligations to the farmers in need of assistance and those affected across the country, ensuring that military and essential services, as well as everyone relying on federal government pay, receive their wages during the holidays.

NBC News reporter Jake Sherman also mentioned on Friday that Republicans are dividing the bill into multiple parts. In other words, Republican lawmakers may separate several components of a single bill into different bills for individual voting. He stated that after the first continuing resolution (CR) was shot down earlier this week, the second CR failed to be submitted for a full House vote, and the third option is a 'clean' CR, a bill that does not mix in anything other than government spending.

Sherman stated that the three bills scheduled for voting are: a CR providing short-term government spending until March next year, a disaster relief bill, and an agriculture bill.

Sherman also said that the agreement reached by Republicans proposes raising the debt ceiling by 1.5 trillion dollars while committing to cut 2.5 trillion dollars in 'net mandatory spending.' However, the long-term debt ceiling agreement is not included in the new bills that will be voted on. This means that Republicans may have to push the issue until March of this year, which is the next deadline for the short-term spending bill that keeps the government operational.

Wall Street Journal.It was mentioned that the House released a newly proposed short-term spending bill, namely a CR, on Tuesday, which will maintain federal government spending at current levels for the next three months, providing lawmakers more time to negotiate new annual appropriation bills. The measure also includes 100 billion dollars in disaster relief funding and extends the agriculture bill for one year, providing 10 billion dollars in assistance to farmers.

However, the CR was met with strong opposition from Trump's camp as soon as it was introduced on Tuesday. Trump stated on Wednesday that he 'completely opposes' the CR. Elected Vice President Vance released a joint statement with Trump on social media, indicating that Congress should pass a 'clean version' of the spending bill rather than meet all the Democrats' demands. The statement also urged Republicans to pressure Democrats to agree to raise the debt ceiling.

Elon Musk, who is about to be appointed as the joint minister for Trump's 'Department of Government Efficiency' (DOGE), posted over twenty messages on social media on Wednesday, criticizing the bill from various angles and calling for Congressional members to vote against it, threatening that any legislator supporting the bill should be voted out in two years.

On Thursday evening Eastern Time, the short-term spending bill supported by Trump and the second version of the CR faced resistance from dozens of Republican lawmakers.The bill proposed to extend funding to keep the government running until March 14 of next year and to suspend the USA debt ceiling for two years.The aforementioned streamlined spending bill received only 174 votes in favor during the House vote, clearly falling short of the 235 votes against it, with 38 Republicans voting against it. Among the Democrats, only two voted in favor and one abstained, while the rest voted against.

Due to the failure of the vote, the bill did not proceed to the full House vote process and was effectively dead on arrival.

Editor/lambor