Government Shutdown Averted, German Christmas Market Attack, Netflix And The NFL
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Congress approved a short-term spending deal to keep government running until mid-March. A man drove a car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing at least five. Netflix again plans to stream major sporting events live, after a rocky first attempt last month.
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The federal government will stay open at least until mid-March. Congress ratifies a bipartisan short-term spending plan to avert a government shutdown this weekend. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is up first from NPR News. Republicans defy the demands of President-elect Donald Trump and vote in favor of the deal. We wanted any spending package to also raise the debt ceiling, but the debt ceiling is going to stay where it is for now. We'll have more on that story, plus a car plows into a busy Christmas market in Germany, killing at least five people and leaving more than 200 injured. And Netflix tries once more to stream major sports events, this time with two NFL games on Christmas Day. Stay with us. We'll move your news need to start your weekend. Lawmakers voted late last night to approve the short-term spending package, just as the federal government was about to shut down. But not until after Trump interfered with his own demands and threats. NPR political correspondent Susan Davis joins us. Sue, thanks for being with us. You're welcome. Next after midnight, renegotiated legislation was approved. What's in it? Well, it's a slim down version of the original bipartisan deal that was derailed earlier in the week after Trump and one of his newest top lieutenants, billionaire businessman Elon Musk, came out in opposition to it after it had been negotiated. It still keeps the government on autopilot until mid-March, so don't worry, they get to do this all over again in the spring. It still includes about $100 billion for states still recovering from natural disasters like North Carolina and Hawaii, and it still extends farm programs for about a year. Speaker Mike Johnson removed some previously agreed-upon measures to cover things like pediatric cancer research funding, although I should note the Senate ultimately passed that last night as a standalone measure, and a measure to try to control prescription drug costs because it was seen as too big of a giveaway to Democrats. One other thing, it's just shorter. Musk and others helped drive opposition to the bill, in part because it was initially 1,500 pages long, conservatives really don't like behemoth legislation like that. The new bill was just about 120 pages. This was something of a political aim for Donald Trump, who isn't, of course, not going to be president for another month. What did the president elect get out of this legislation? I think Trump and his allies are going to point to things like the removal of a provision that would have given members of Congress their first pay raise in about 17 years. They didn't like the way that looked, especially at Christmas time for the party. But Scott, I think a lot of this episode this week potentially exposed more of Trump's political weaknesses. He tried to strongarm into the bill an unconditional increase in the debt ceiling. That's the nation's borrowing limit because he wanted to do it on President Biden's watch to alleviate the political pressure on his administration to do it when that vote happens, likely sometime next summer. Not only is it not in the deal, but a failed second attempt to passage was rejected by
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