Shutdown Countdown: With Midnight Deadline, Republicans Try To Figure Out Budget Tangle Amid Musk-Trump Fueled Impasse

deadline.com:

CNN and MSNBC have introduced countdown clocks as the U.S. government heads for a shutdown at midnight tonight, as congressional Republicans try to come up with a funding plan that will pass muster with its members following Elon Musk and Donald Trump‘s moves to scuttle a previous bipartisan agreement.

House Republicans were meeting behind closed doors this afternoon to chart a path forward, after one plan — to accompany government and disaster relief funding with a raising of the debut limit — was resoundingly defeated on Thursday.

There were reports that the GOP leaders in the House now plan to take separate votes on various funding proposals. But any legislation still would have to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, while Democratic leaders on both sides of the aisle are fuming.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had reached a bipartisan agreement with other leaders on legislation to fund the government through the spring along with a host of other end-of-the-year proposals, but backed off after Elon Musk relentlessly trashed the plan on his social media platform X.