GOP Stopgap Bill Fails, Battle For Ukrainian Town, Syria's Interim Government
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Congress has a midnight deadline to fund the federal government. Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump instructed Republicans to kill a bipartisan plan. Then the House rejected Trump's preferred alternative. Russia's army has lost thousands of soldiers trying to capture a strategic Ukrainian town, and in Syria, the rebel group that toppled former dictator Bashar al-Assad is now is now tasked with building a new government that includes everyone in a divided country.
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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Carrie Kahn, Ryland Barton, HJ Mai and Olivia Hampton. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Kaity Kline. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange. Our executive producer is Kelley Dickens.
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Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.
Today's episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Carrie Kahn, Ryland Barton, HJ Mai and Olivia Hampton. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Kaity Kline. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange. Our executive producer is Kelley Dickens.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
"Congress has the deadline of tonight to fund the federal government." Elon Musk and President-elect Trump instructed Republicans to kill a bipartisan plan, then the House rejected Trump's preferred alternative. What now? I'm Michelle Martin. That's Steveinsky, but this is up first from NPR News. Russia's army has lost thousands of soldiers trying to capture a single Ukrainian town. Ukraine's army has defended against superior numbers and swarms of drones. "We will listen as one of those drones is shot down." Also, a rebel group toppled Syria's government with surprising ease. Now it's their job to build a new government that includes everyone in a divided country. How could they do it? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. Federal agencies run out of money at midnight tonight. It is not clear how Congress will do one of the most basic parts of its job, which is to fund the daily operations of the federal government. It's been a busy week, but that didn't get done, so let's review. Lawmakers were on track for a bipartisan bill to manage the next few months, while a new administration takes charge. It added disaster assistance, farm subsidies, and some money for healthcare programs. Then Elon Musk, the world's richest man, demanded that Congress kill the deal. President-elect Trump follow the lead of his close adviser, telling Republicans to turn against their plan how Speaker Mike Johnson came up with a plan B, and that failed last night. Just taking a breath. NPR congressional correspondent, Deirdre Walsh, has been covering all of this and is up early once again. Hi there, Deirdre. Good morning, Steve. Why did plan B fail? It failed because a significant block of the speaker's own Republican colleagues joined most Democrats and tanked it. Even after President-elect Trump endorsed the deal, this Republican deal, and threatened primary challengers for any Republican lawmaker who voted no. Most House conservatives who voted against this criticized the decision at Trump's insistence to add a two-year increase to the country's borrowing authority without any spending cuts. Texas Republican Chip Roy was one of them, and he chastised his Republican colleagues on the House floor. "To take this bill yesterday and congratulate yourself because it's shorter in pages, but it increases the debt by $5 trillion is asinine." Republicans were essentially daring Democrats to vote no on this latest plan, and argued they were the ones who wanted a shutdown. But Democrats opposed adding the debt limit, and said provisions in the original bipartisan deal, things like lowering drug costs, funding children's cancer research, preventing China from getting access to U.S. technologies, were dumped out because Elon Musk was advising Trump and was looking out for his own interests. And Democrats took a swipe at the president-elect, suggesting someone else was actually calling the shots, and they call it Musk President Musk. I'm just thinking about peer numbers in the House of Representatives.
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