US speaker proposes temporary measure to prevent govt shutdown

US house speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday he hopes lawmakers take temporary measures soon to avoid a government shutdown, allowing them to adopt a full budget only after Donald Trump takes power in January.

Lawmakers face a December 20 deadline either to adopt a budget or to pass a so-called continuing resolution to keep federal agencies operating temporarily. A failure to act would mean governmental paralysis.

The Congress, which has been in recess for more than a month because of the national elections, returns on Tuesday. Newly elected members are not sworn in until January.

A temporary extension now would allow the newly constituted Congress, under Trump, to approve a full yearly budget.

"We're running out of clock," Johnson said on Fox News Sunday. "December 20th is the deadline.

"We're still hopeful that we might be able to get (a full budget) done, but if not, we'll have a temporary measure, I think, that would go into the first part of next year and allow us the necessary time to get this done."

He added: "I think that would be ultimately a good move, because the country would benefit from it, because then you'd have Republican control, and we'd have a little more say in what those spending bills are."

In the November 5 elections Republicans maintained their majority in the House of Representatives and wrested control of the Senate from Democrats, greatly strengthening the incoming president's hand in passing legislation.

Johnson accused Democrats of having blocked votes on budget matters. "That's not how the process is supposed to work," he said, adding that things would change soon.

"The new reform agenda begins in earnest as soon as President Donald J. Trump takes office in January, and we have a full agenda to run," he said.

"It's going to be a very aggressive first hundred days of the new Congress. And we're getting all the members of Congress ready for that."

Johnson said he had met in the past week with new Senate majority leader John Thune of South Dakota, a more traditional Republican.

"We talked about this aggressive agenda, and he told me he is ready to go and deliver on that America First, those America First policies. So it'll be a very busy time for Congress and a good time for the country."