Despite the chaos created by billionaire Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump, the federal government avoided a partial shutdown of its offices in the middle of Christmas by passing a resolution extending the budget until March 14 and the farm bill, which regulates food allocations, until September 30, 2025.

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Lee este artículo en español.

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President Joe Biden signed the measure into law today.

The final resolution, passed past midnight Friday, was ratified by the Senate (85-11), just hours after the House Republican majority was able to pass the third version of the measure, by a vote of 366-34, with one ‘present’ vote. All 34 “no” votes were Republican.

Contrary to President-elect Trump’s request, the legislation excluded language that would have authorized raising until January 2027 the federal public debt ceiling. But, it did include some $110 billion in appropriations to mitigate natural disasters in 2024 and provide subsidies to farmers.

In the end, Trump and Musk’s opposition to last Tuesday’s original bipartisan agreement excluded other earmarks - such as $190 million for cancer research and a cost-of-living increase for members of Congress - but left urgent initiatives and the most costly, such as funds to mitigate damage from hurricanes, floods and wildfires.

Any allocation for Puerto Rico, as requested by Democratic congressmen led by Raúl Grijalva (Arizona) after the August blackouts caused by storm Ernesto, will depend on the Executive Branch.

With respect to the farm bill, which had expired last October 1, the extension of the statute gives the next Puerto Rico government nine months to convince Congress and Trump’s Department of Agriculture that it can be ready in 2025 to implement the work requirements and technological changes required for a transition process from the Nutrition Assistance Program (PAN) to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

But, the Republicans who will chair the House Agriculture Committee, Glenn “GT” Thompson (Pennsylvania), and the Senate Agriculture Committee, John Boozman (Arkansas), have not supported the inclusion of Puerto Rico in SNAP, which, according to the Puerto Rican government, could increase appropriations from about $2.9 billion to about $5 billion annually.

Once the chaos generated by Musk and Trump was over as Congress neared passage of a resolution negotiated by the leaders of both legislative chambers, President Joe Biden’s administration slowed steps toward a partial shutdown of the federal government.

Although the Senate passed the legislation early Saturday, after midnight, President Biden determined that the final agreement would avoid a partial shutdown, despite the brief expiration of the spending authorization. In any case, the impact of a partial shutdown of the federal government - which would have meant sending hundreds of thousands of employees home or failing to pay those most needed - over the weekend would have been minimal.

Hours after completing the legislative process, President Biden signed the resolution into law, the White House reported.

“While this bill does not include everything Democrats fought for, it contains important victories for American families” and keeps ‘the government open without draconian cuts,’ Senate Democratic Majority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) said.

For Republicans to advance the measure in the House of Representatives they had to cancel Trump’s request to raise the federal debt ceiling.

Trump had threatened to seek to defeat in the next congressional elections anyone who opposed raising the debt ceiling - which expires in January, but technically does not need to be raised until the summer - at the close of the 118th Congress’ work.

To move the legislation forward, Speaker Mike Johnson (Louisiana) pushed for a verbal agreement with fiscal conservatives to seek to cut mandated budget spending - including Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ services and food assistance - by at least $2.5 trillion by 2025 and raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion, according to sources in The Washington Post.

Trump wants to start 2025 - he is sworn in for a new four-year term on January 20 - with a fiscal reconciliation bill that will allow him to implement changes in immigration laws, obtain funds for the deportation of “millions of undocumented immigrants” and reauthorize the tax cuts that were approved in the 2017 tax reform.

The crisis of the past few days has once again put the future of Speaker Johnson, who faced criticism from the most conservative Republicans over this week’s original budget deal and from the Democratic leadership that saw him go back on his word after Musk and Trump’s opposition to the bipartisan plan.

“We are thrilled with this outcome tonight. We’re grateful that everyone came together to do the right thing and, having accomplished this now (it’s the last issue of the year), we’re ready for a new and important start in January. We’re looking forward to getting to that point,” Johnson said at the end of the House vote, seeking to put a good face on the situation.

When the new Congress begins on January 3, the first order of business will be to elect the next speaker. Johnson will then have a 219-215 majority (former Congressman Matt Gaetz, reelected in Florida, has said he will not take the seat, amid an ethics investigation).

Johnson, therefore, can only lose two votes if all Democrats are present that day. But many have expressed doubts about Johnson’s future as Speaker, a position he assumed in October 2023, following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy (Calif.).

So far, Republican Thomas Massie (Kentucky) has ruled out voting for Johnson and Andy Harris (Maryland), chairman of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus, said he is undecided.

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This content was translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence and was reviewed by an editor before being published.