By Liz Moyer

Lawmakers reflected on what the narrowly avoided government shutdown means heading into President-elect Donald Trump's second term after days of political chaos over temporary funding.

House Speaker Mike Johnson attempted three plans to extend government funding into March, thus avoiding a federal shutdown that could have started early Saturday, but the effort wasn't without drama. Lawmakers finally reached approval on the third package with just hours to go before that deadline, and President Joe Biden signed it on Saturday.

Trump had demanded lawmakers reject Johnson's first proposal, which included $100 billion for disaster relief and farm aid plus a number of other provisions critics called classic pork barrel politics.

Trump took to social media to criticize that first plan, telling lawmakers they should reject it and bring forth a clean bill that included a provision that would eliminate or suspend the debt ceiling. Lawmakers ultimately approved a measure without addressing the debt ceiling, meaning Trump will now face a fight on the issue at some point during his first few months in office as the nation reaches its statutory borrowing limit.

Last week's battle on Capitol Hill got a jolt of added drama from billionaire Tesla CEO and Trump advisor Elon Musk, who helped torpedo Johnson's first funding package with a barrage of social media posts criticizing it and threatening the lawmakers who supported it.

Many have criticized Musk's attempt to influence the debate. Democrat Democratic Sen. Chris Coons told CNN's State of the Union on Sunday that last week's drama is a predictor of what is to come. "We're not just going to have president-elect Trump as a billionaire rage-tweeting at 4 a.m. We're going to have Elon Musk also injecting instability into how we tackle very complicated and important issues."

On Sunday, former New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie told ABC News This Week that Musk's influence over future policymaking will end when Trump "believes that something has gone wrong and he needs someone to blame and Musk becomes the person to blame. And no one knows how long that will take."

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat, told ABC News This Week that he isn't rooting against Trump as president. "If you're rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation," he said.

One challenge for Trump in pressing his legislative priorities will be the extremely thin majority margin for Republicans in the House.

"I think we're in for some really rough sailing, and it's going to be difficult for them to pass much of president-elect Trump's ambitious agenda on straight party-line votes," Coons said on Sunday.

Trump was scheduled to speak midmorning local Phoenix time at the conservative AmericaFest conference on Sunday.

Earlier on Sunday, Trump was on his social media account, naming economist Stephen Miran as his Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. Miran served in his first administration as a senior advisor for economic policy at the Treasury Department. Miran has been critical of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Trump also noted that this was the seventh anniversary of his tax cuts becoming law, and said the fees Panama charges for access through the canal by the U.S., its Navy, and companies were "ridiculous," and added "this complete 'rip-off' of our Country will immediately stop."

Write to Liz Moyer at liz.moyer@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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December 22, 2024 12:29 ET (17:29 GMT)

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