Republicans have struck a deal on a short-term government spending patch and potential debt limit increase, according to two GOP lawmakers meeting in Speaker Mike Johnson’s office Thursday afternoon.
“There is an agreement,” said Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.). Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) confirmed there was a deal among Republicans, though the news caught House Democrats by surprise.
The plan Johnson is expected to put on the House floor later Thursday includes, according to three Republicans familiar with the deal, a stopgap measure that funds the government through mid-March, a clean farm bill extension, the $110 billion disaster aid package previously negotiated with Democrats, clean health care provision extenders and a two-year suspension of the debt limit, kicking a new deadline into January 2027.
Bice said she expects Donald Trump and Elon Musk to support the deal, after the two derailed Johnson’s plan to pass a more than 1,500-page catch-all measure he negotiated with top Democrats earlier this week to avert a government shutdown, deliver more than $100 billion in disaster aid and enact a slew of unrelated policy priorities.
The goal is for the House to vote Thursday, Bice added. The government shutdown deadline is Friday at midnight.
Given House Democrats did not appear to be read in on the deal, it wasn’t immediately clear if they will support it, and Johnson will almost certainly need their votes to pass it through the chamber. Shortly after the agreement was announced, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) already said he was opposed to the plan — an attitude other conservatives are certain to share.
“It’s a water-downed version of the same crappy bill people were mad about yesterday,” he said on The Sean Hannity Show.
Jordain Carney, Olivia Beavers and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
