Government shutdown live updates: House passes stop-gap funding bill, sends to Senate

House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House will address the debt limit "early in January."

Asked whether he still wants to be speaker, Johnson paused before expressing his appreciation for the challenging leadership post.

"Being speaker of the House is a challenge in this modern era, but it's a challenge that we accept. It's a great honor to serve in the position. I wouldn't say it's the most fun job in the world all the time, but it's an important one. It's a hugely consequential moment for the country," he said.

"We are really grateful that tonight, in bipartisan fashion, with overwhelming majority of votes, we passed the American Relief Act of 2025. This is a very important piece of legislation," Johnson said.

Johnson said the bill is "a necessary step to bridge the gap, to put us into that that moment where we can put our fingerprints on the final decisions on spending for 2025. We also, in this bill, as you know, took care of Americans who desperately needed and deserve the assistance.

"We also took care of our farmers, many of whom were on the brink of collapse because of Bidenomics, frankly, because the inflationary cost of their inputs," he added.

The speaker said he was in "constant contact with President Trump" and spoke with him 45 minutes ago.

"He knew exactly what we were doing and why, and this is a good outcome for the country. I think he certainly is happy about this outcome as well," he said.

Johnson said he talked to Elon Musk an hour ago, saying, "We talked about the extraordinary challenges of this job, and I said, 'Hey, you want to be speaker of the House?' I don't know. He said, this may be the hardest job in the world."

With an overwhelming bipartisan majority, Republicans and Democrats came together Friday evening to pass a short-term spending bill to keep the government open through March 14.

The final vote was 366-34-1, easily surpassing the two-thirds majority threshold needed for passage under suspension of the rules.

No Democrats voted against the measure, while 34 Republicans voted against it. One Democrat voted "present."

The bill now heads to the Senate with about six hours left before tonight's deadline.

President Joe Biden has thrown his support for the funding bill that is being voted on by the House, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

The president "supports moving this legislation forward and ensuring that the vital services the government provides for hardworking Americans -- from issuing Social Security checks to processing benefits for veterans -- can continue as well as to grant assistance for communities that were impacted by devastating hurricanes," she said in a statement.

Jean-Pierre added that while the bill "does not include everything we sought," it does keep the government running, get aid to those still recovering from disasters earlier this year and " eliminates the accelerated pathway to a tax cut for billionaires."

She slammed President-elect Donald Trump for causing the last-minute scramble.

"Following an order by President-elect Trump, yesterday Republicans walked away from a bipartisan deal and threatened to shut down the government at the 11th hour in order to pave the way to provide tax breaks for billionaires. This revised legislation does not do that," she said.