US govt shutdown looms as bill fails in Congress

RTHK：Video News

A spending bill backed by Donald Trump failed in the US House of Representatives on Thursday as dozens of Republicans defied the president-elect, leaving Congress with no clear plan to avert a fast-approaching government shutdown that could disrupt Christmas travel. The vote laid bare fault lines in Trump's Republican Party that could surface again next year when they control the White House and both chambers of Congress. Trump had pressured lawmakers to tie up loose ends before he takes office on January 20, but members of the party's right flank refused to support a package that would increase spending and clear the way for a plan that would add trillions more to the federal government's US$36 trillion in debt. "I am absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go to the American people and say you think this is fiscally responsible," said Republican Representative Chip Roy, one of 38 Republicans who voted against the bill. The package failed by a vote of 174-235 just hours after it was hastily assembled by Republican leaders seeking to comply with Trump's demands. A prior bipartisan deal was scuttled after Trump and the world's richest person Elon Musk came out against it on Wednesday. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson provided no details when reporters asked him about next steps after the failed vote. "We will come up with another solution," he said. Government funding is due to expire at midnight on Friday. If lawmakers fail to extend that deadline, the US government will begin a partial shutdown that would interrupt funding for everything from border enforcement to national parks and cut off paychecks for more than two million federal workers. The US Transportation Security Administration warned that travellers during the busy holiday season could face long lines at airports. The bill that failed on Thursday largely resembled the earlier version that Musk and Trump had blasted as a wasteful giveaway to Democrats. It would have extended government funding into March and provided US$100 billion in disaster relief and suspended the debt. Republicans dropped other elements that had been included in the original package, such as a pay raise for lawmakers and new rules for pharmacy benefit managers. At Trump's urging, the new version also would have suspended limits on the national debt for two years -- a move that would make it easier to pass the dramatic tax cuts he has promised. Johnson before the vote told reporters that the package would avoid disruption, tie up loose ends and make it easier for lawmakers to cut spending by hundreds of billions of dollars when Trump takes office next year. "Government is too big, it does too many things, and it does few things well," he said. (Reuters)