Chicago – December 19, 2024
House Republicans have agreed on a temporary solution to prevent a government shutdown by this Friday. According to Fox News Digital, the agreement will keep government funding at its current levels for the next three months and pause the debt ceiling for two years, as President-elect Trump wanted.
This plan also includes financial help for farmers and about $110 billion for disaster relief to help Americans affected by the storms named Helene and Milton. However, despite some lawmakers wanting these reforms, it does not contain changes to the Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) system.
The agreement was reached after a failed initial attempt by Speaker Mike Johnson to pass a funding bill, which was disrupted by conservatives including Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. They disagreed with adding extra policies to the bill at the last moment, which led to worries about a potential government shutdown just before the holiday season.
In response to these developments, House Republicans started talks to create a straightforward bill without extra additions, known as a continuing resolution (CR). However, these discussions took a turn when Trump called for the CR to also address the debt ceiling, setting up what could be a significant political fight early next year.
