Jeffries says bipartisan funding deal is ‘best path,’ but doesn’t rule out thinner bill

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Thursday the spending deal secured by the two parties is the “best path” for avoiding a government shutdown, but he did not rule out Democratic support for a smaller package to keep the lights on into next year.

Asked if Democrats could get behind a continuing resolution (CR) that includes only government funding, aid for farmers and help for victims of natural disasters, Jeffries left the door open. 

“House Democrats are going to continue to fight for families, farmers and the future of working class Americans,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol. “And in order to do that, the best path forward is the bipartisan agreement that we negotiated.” 

Pressed if that means Democrats could support an alternative version of the CR, Jeffries again declined to close the door on that option. 

“We are prepared to move forward with the bipartisan agreement that we thought was negotiated in good faith with House Republicans, along with Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans, that meets the needs of the American people at this moment in time,” he said. 

“We are fighting for everyday Americans — not for millionaires and billionaires,” he continued. “We are fighting for everyday Americans who will be hurt by a reckless Republican shutdown."

Jeffries’s cautious language — and his decision not to reject a slimmer spending bill — appears to present one potential scenario for a bipartisan compromise to stave off a government shutdown at the end of the day on Friday.

But such a compromise would also require that President-elect Trump drop his demand for an increase — or perhaps the elimination — of the debt-ceiling to be included in any spending package, which Jeffries is rejecting out of hand. 

“The debt-limit issue and discussion is premature, at best,” Jeffries said.

Unveiled Tuesday, the bipartisan agreement funds the government until March 14 but also features a long list of additional provisions, including more than $100 billion for farmers and victims of natural disasters, money for a collapsed bridge in Baltimore, language to lower prescription drug prices and a measure designed to help the District of Columbia build a new football stadium. 

The attachments grew the bill to more than 1,500 pages and earned it the “Christmas tree” label that’s infuriated conservatives on and off of Capitol Hill. Elon Musk, who has been tapped by Trump to find ways to slash federal spending, bashed the legislation throughout the day on Wednesday, warning GOP lawmakers that support for the package would earn them a primary challenge — a threat with teeth given Musk’s willingness to spend millions of dollars on campaigns.

Trump piled on later in the day, pressing GOP leaders to walk away from the bipartisan agreement and move on a smaller bill. He’s also demanding that the package include action on the debt ceiling, which caps federal spending even when Congress has already approved it. Any Republican who votes for a CR without the debt ceiling language “should, and will, be Primaried,” he warned in a Truth Social post.

The surprise intervention from Musk and Trump has tanked the bipartisan deal and left Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and his leadership team scrambling for a Plan B that can both keep the government open and satisfy Trump, Musk and the restive conservatives in the GOP conference who say a shutdown would be better than adopting the bipartisan agreement. 

Without congressional action, large parts of the federal government will close Saturday at 12:01 a.m. EST.

Amid the chaos, Democrats are accusing GOP leaders of caving to unelected figures, in Musk, and those not yet in power, in Trump, at risk of shuttering the government over the holidays. 

“[The] bipartisan agreement has now been detonated because House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt the very working class Americans that many of them pretend to want to help," Jeffries said.   

Jeffries declined to say if he’s in active talks with Johnson in search of a solution. But Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the Democratic whip, suggested the discussion is limited to Republicans — at least for the moment. 

“So far this is an internal fight that they are having,” Clark said. 

Some Democrats are already prepping for a shutdown they see as essentially inevitable. 

"We have to prepare the community,” Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) said Thursday morning. “We have to let folks at home know that it's very likely that we will have a government shutdown."

Others are bashing Johnson for walking away from the deal he had endorsed just a day earlier. They view the current debate as a preview of things to come in the next Congress, when Republicans will control all the levers of power in Washington, but House Republicans will have the slimmest majority in modern history. 

"These guys are just incompetent,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), senior Democrat on the Rules Committee. “They're going to have a smaller majority next year than they do this year, and this whole year they've proven that they cannot govern, they're incapable of governing. And I think it's just going to get worse.

“You kind of want to say to Johnson, 'Just grow a f‑‑‑ing spine.'”