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Sen. Patty Murray, the Democratic chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, expressed her readiness to remain in Washington, D.C., through the Christmas holidays to counter President-elect Donald Trump’s demand to remove negotiated provisions from a continuing resolution aimed at funding the federal government shutdown.
Murray criticized tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, one of Trump’s prominent advisers, for spearheading efforts on Capitol Hill to scrap the 1,547-page bill that had initially received backing from House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana. After facing opposition within the GOP ranks in the House, lawmakers scrambled to assemble a second plan touted by Trump, which ultimately failed in a 174-235 vote on Thursday night.
Read Chair @PattyMurray's statement on the path forward to fund the government. pic.twitter.com/GV0iOCHCnT
— Senate Appropriations Dems (@SenateApprops) December 20, 2024
“I’m prepared to stay here through Christmas because we’re not going to allow Elon Musk to run the government,” Murray stated. “Put simply, we should not permit an unelected billionaire to strip away research funding for pediatric cancer just so he can secure a tax cut or dismantle policies that help America outcompete China, simply because it could undermine his financial interests.”
“We had reached a bipartisan agreement — we should adhere to it,” she added, noting that the deal negotiated by Democrats with Johnson would “responsibly fund the government, provide much-needed disaster relief to communities across America, and deliver some positive bipartisan policy reforms.”
On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, acknowledged the increasing likelihood that Congress might have to spend Christmas at the Capitol as lawmakers strive to reach an agreement.
“Right now, there’s a very good chance we may be in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,” Cruz said on his podcast, Verdict. “We could be in D.C. on Christmas Day.”
“At this point, the path ahead appears very uncertain,” he remarked.
On Thursday night, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, urged Johnson to revive the original stopgap funding bill that the speaker had initially supported before Trump and Musk sank it and proposed a plan B.
The dinosaur Senator Patty Murray doesn't like Elon Musk.
TERM. LIMITS. NOW. pic.twitter.com/Ql8WXGaND0
— Kevin Chau (@kchau) December 20, 2024
“It’s a good thing the bill failed in the House,” Schumer said of the slimmed-down version of the funding bill. “And now, it’s time to go back to the bipartisan agreement we came to.”
The New York Democrat warned of the impending government shutdown on Friday morning and said the best chance of keeping the government operational was the earlier continuing resolution deal.
“If Republicans do not work with Democrats in a bipartisan way very soon, the government will shut down at midnight,” he said from the Senate floor. “It’s time to go back to the original agreement we had just a few days ago.”
