Rep. Malliotakis to Newsmax: Funding Bill 'Does What We Need It to Do'

The government funding bill approved by Congress Friday "does what we need it to do" for a short period of time until President-elect Donald Trump and the "Republican trifecta" take office in January, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis told Newsmax Saturday.

"It provides disaster relief, and it also provides relief for our farmers to protect our supply chain," the New York Republican told Newsmax's "America Right Now." "This is something that a lot of us advocated for."

Members of the House passed House Speaker Mike Johnson's third try at a new funding bill by 366-34, with the Senate working to pass it by 85-11, just after the midnight shutdown that would have triggered a government shutdown had legislation not passed. 

At midnight, the White House said it had ceased its preparations for the shutdown. 

Malliotakis told Newsmax that Republicans were "very much against the big bad backroom deal" that was initially championed by Johnson but "not presented to Congress and members on the Republican side."

"We were very much against the big bad backroom deal that was not presented to Congress and members on the Republican side," Malliotakis said of the first try at the bill. "We were expected to just be rubber stamps, and that was unacceptable."

But with the measure passed Friday, "we were able to get exactly what we needed, and it was the basics to continue funding this government until President Trump and the Republican trifecta take office next year…it was the best-case scenario in the situation that we were in."

Meanwhile, Trump had called for a measure to lift the debt ceiling, which was not included in the package passed Friday. GOP leaders said the matter would be part of their debate on tax and border packages in 2025. 

Malliotakis, though, said she thinks the debt ceiling issue should have been in the passed package.

"We have to also recognize, and we do as a party, that we need to begin cutting wasteful spending and driving down this debt overall, [as] 13% of our federal spending is payments on debt, the interest on this debt, and so we need to get our fiscal house in order," said the congresswoman. "We may have different ways as to how we achieve that, but at the end of the day, not having this over President Trump's head in the first six months of his new administration, I think, would have given him and the Republicans leverage."

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