It’s unclear what a new deal to fund the government ahead of the Friday night shutdown deadline will look like, but Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told reporters on Wednesday night the deal was “dead” and that lawmakers were “looking at a number of options” as a path forward.

The reversal comes just over 24 hours after the continuing resolution was released, resulting in widespread outrage among Republicans in both the House and Senate. The House was expected to vote on the bill as early as Wednesday, but those plans were quickly scrapped after GOP leaders failed to whip enough support among the conference as rank-and-file members raged over additional spending items that were tacked on to the must-pass bill.

However, the final nail in the coffin may have been when Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance publicly opposed the bill, calling for the House GOP to move forward with a clean CR and drop the additional provisions that were negotiated with Democrats.

The change of plans comes as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) looks to get his conference on board, but a new deal could cost him Democratic support as Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) indicated he would not provide cover to avoid a shutdown if the bipartisan agreement was broken — instead saying the blame would lie solely with Republicans.

“House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt everyday Americans all across this country,” Jeffries told reporters on Wednesday. “House Republicans will now own any harm that is visited upon the American people that results from a government shutdown or worse. An agreement is an agreement.”

Frustration against Johnson began earlier this week before the legislative text was available as lawmakers across the ideological spectrum criticized GOP leadership for a lack of communication about what was included in the spending bill. That anger bubbled over after the text was released and lawmakers lamented about the short time frame to digest thousands of pages of legislative changes. 

“The American people don’t send their representatives to Washington to vote on a 1,500-page bill in less than 24 hours that spends $110 billion, adds $110 billion to the deficit without the opportunity to offer an amendment to perhaps pay for this bill,” said Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R-MD). “The process is broken.”

Harris’s complaints, shared by others in the conference, stem from how the now-scrapped continuing resolution was structured. 

The package was broken into two parts: a funding portion to continue current spending levels for government agencies until March 14 and a second portion that includes $110.4 billion in disaster relief and farmer’s assistance. 

However, there were no spending cuts included in the bill to offset the costs, raising alarm bells for deficit hawks in both the House and Senate. 

“It’s just wasteful spending with no pay-fors,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL). “We won the election. This has got to change.” 

Other members expressed upset about the additional funding tacked on to the continuing resolution, as many said they were under the impression it would just include a clean extension of those current spending levels. As a result, some were shocked when they saw additional measures, including a slew of healthcare reform provisions. 

“It was always the discussion of doing a clean CR, and the question was, how long do you want to do the clean CR?” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) told the Washington Examiner over the weekend. “But now, in the very last week before everybody goes home for Christmas, they’re going to totally make a huge change in the healthcare policy that is going to cost the American people a lot of money.”

Pressure started to grow on Johnson after prominent conservative figures such as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy came out against the bill, calling it counterproductive to the GOP’s plans to cut spending.

But leadership ultimately pulled the legislation after Trump and Vance’s joint statement condemning its “sweetheart provisions,” telling Republicans to call Democrats’ bluff should they fail to cooperate.

Trump also suggested lawmakers should include a debt ceiling lift — something that could take days, if not weeks, of negotiations. 

“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration?” Trump and Vance said in a joint statement. “Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.”

Trump dug in on that stance in a later statement, even going so far as to say that any Republican that doesn’t support a clean CR with a debt ceiling increase attached “should, and will be, Primaried.”

“If Republicans try to pass a clean Continuing Resolution without all of the Democrat ‘bells and whistles’ that will be so destructive to our Country, all it will do, after January 20th, is bring the mess of the Debt Limit into the Trump Administration, rather than allowing it to take place in the Biden Administration,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Everything should be done, and fully negotiated, prior to my taking Office on January 20th, 2025.”