PBS News Hour

JOHN YANG: Good evening.

I'm John Yang.

President Biden signed the short-term spending bill this morning that prevents a government shutdown.

The stroke of a pen ended chaotic days that saw President-elect Trump clashing with House members of his own party.

Final congressional approval of the bipartisan deal came just past the midnight deadline.

The measure extends current government funding through mid-March, provides $100 billion in disaster relief to hurricane survivors, and $10 billion in aid to farmers.

But lawmakers refused Mr. Trump's core demand to raise the nation's debt limit.

Lisa Desjardins, our congressional correspondent, followed every step of this process on Capitol Hill this week.

Lisa, why did this take so long?

Why was this so hard?

LISA DESJARDINS: Such a good question, John.

In the end, I think that this was a result of having an inexperienced speaker who went way too far in making commitments to Democrats that he didn't even know he had the votes for, either among his own Republican conference or the vote of approval from President-Elect Trump, which we know is critical for Republicans in Congress.

What happened here was Speaker Johnson spent days negotiating with Democrats, and that bill was much maligned because of its size.

But in truth, a lot of the things added to that bill were bipartisan policies generally in nature.

But there were a few things in there that many Republicans simply couldn't stomach.

And my reporting is talking to, in fact, committee chairs who are Republicans, is that Johnson just didn't keep them informed on what was going on.

He was talking to Democrats when he didn't have the votes to do it.

This way oversimplifies things, John, but it's a little bit like one member of a family agreeing to buy a house on a handshake, not telling their spouse that they're doing it, and also not having the money to do it.

JOHN YANG: You know, Lisa, we're just a few weeks away from the Republicans claiming the White House, the House and the Senate.

What does this past week tell us about the Republicans?

LISA DESJARDINS: To me, it tells me that this is a group that has within it core constituencies that are not going to compromise.

And in particular, that has to do with the debt and the deficit.

We saw that being the largest group of people that objected to that large bill.

And also in the end, we saw Republicans voting against even that sort of pared down last bill.

And it's important to note that this is a group that is saying they don't want to compromise, overspending.

They potentially may be willing to risk a shutdown even under President-elect Trump.

And they stood up to President Trump because they believe these things, but at the same time, by not compromising, this is a group that again and again risks sort of this turbulence and this turmoil.

The other thing that we learned was that President-elect Trump has enormous sway, but not all of the sway necessary to push dozens of Republicans away from their core values.

We saw these House Republicans, especially those fiscal conservatives, vote with their principles versus voting with President elect Trump.

He wanted a debt ceiling increase and he did not get it.

JOHN YANG: Lisa, you know, one of the voices that helped sink that first big deal you spoke of was Elon Musk.

What does his role say about all this?

LISA DESJARDINS: Such a fascinating conversation.

And you know, in the halls of Congress, this was the conversation that senators were bringing up, asking me, in fact, in times what I thought Elon Musk's role was, because they know I've covered the Trump campaign.

How influential is he really?

In the end, Elon Musk was really the first rock in the avalanche that toppled that initial bill that Speaker Johnson negotiated with Democrats.

So he had a very powerful role in that.

However, we also saw a limitation in his influence that's important.

He was calling for things as the week went on and his rapid fire tweeting that no one really listened to.

So while he is taken seriously from lawmakers, they tell me that only goes so far, that they're not taking him seriously on everything he says.

JOHN YANG: What should people be taking away from this past week?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

We've had an exhausting political year.

But at the same time, voters still want Washington to act in a different way.

That's in part why President-elect Trump was elected.

So I think people need to be ready for that disruption to continue and we could potentially have chaos soon.

January 3rd.

Speaker Johnson will attempt to be reelected.

He cannot, at this point, lose any more Republicans.

He's already lost one vote.

He can't lose another.

Or he could lose a speakership.

And John, consider this, three days later.

January 6th is the day Congress is supposed to certify the presidential election.

It's possible that could happen for the first time in history without a speaker if Johnson's not able to secure the votes.

JOHN YANG: Lisa Desjardins, thank you very much.

As always.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.