midnight here on the east coast. and welcome to this

extended coverage of fox news at night. i'm kevin corke in for trace gallagher. the united states government is technically shut down at this very moment, but the senate is ready to vote very soon to fix all that. after the house earlier today passed a funding bill. back to our congressional correspondent, the senior chief, the man who knows all. chad pergram. hey, chad. >> hey, there. well, you're right, we are in a technical government shutdown right now. but i want to underscore here that this isn't going to affect federal workers in any adverse way. services are not going to stop because the senate is going to sync up with the house of representatives sometime in about the next 30 or 40 minutes. the deadline here was 1150 9:59 p.m. eastern time. it just did not happen. the senate majority leader, chuck schumer, he came to the floor not long ago and said, oh, we have an agreement, a time agreement in the senate about considering some amendments and another bill, and then we'll get to the government funding portion here, he said. we'll get this

done before the deadline. he was wrong. they are voting right now on a procedural amendment. there is then another amendment that's going to come up here shortly, or an actual vote on a social security bill, and then after that, they actually will have a short debate on the bill to avert a government shutdown. and then they will have the vote. so by my timing here, that's probably about 1240, maybe a little bit later than that. in the morning, they will need 60 votes to fund the government here and align with the house of representatives. so there's not going to be drama in this vote in the next hour or so. there was certainly drama getting to this point to get a package that could get through the house and senate. i mean, they had a 1500 page bill that came out earlier in the week. they thought they were going to get the bill. text. last weekend, house speaker mike johnson said he didn't want any drama this month. they did get a lot of drama here, so the only thing they have to do, actually, is to vote and sync up with the house of representatives, and then everything will be status quo

inside the federal government. this will fund the government through the 14th of march. >> kevin, can you draw a parallel between what we're seeing here tonight, chad, and something you've seen before in all your years on the hill? >> yeah, there have been many versions, many different flavors of this. the fiscal cliff back in 2012, bleeding into 2013, there were a series of government shutdowns. and this is my kind of way. i was christened in washington and covering congress way back when, in the mid 1990s, i worked for c-span. there were a series of government shutdowns, partial government shutdowns from 1995, drifting all the way into early 1996. now, in those days, they had 13 appropriations bills. they're down to 12 now. and when they would have these partial government shutdowns, they would go through and approve a couple more appropriations bills. but that was a long, protracted fight between then house speaker newt gingrich and bill clinton, the president of the united states. it actually

resulted in some deficit reduction. and was a good thing. i mean, they kind of balanced the books by the end of the late, late 1990s. there this really doesn't balance the books. this just keeps the lights on. and this is a product of having very narrow margins in both the house and senate. remember, we had a government shutdown in the fall of 2013. this was over obamacare. this is something where ted cruz, the republican senator from texas, went to the mat over that. we had the longest government shutdown in u.s. history, 35 days. and the reason that's different than the 1995 1996 affair is that that those were partial shutdowns. they had portions of the federal government open through the period of october, november, december, even into early january. but what happened in in 2019, into 2020 is that the full government shutdown just before christmas time, and it was 35 days. it took quite a while to get this, you know, recalibrated and get the votes to open things back

up. you know, it was the factor that kind of spurred them to do so is that air traffic controllers were saying they weren't going to come to work. there were some lawmakers who were very concerned. and the trump administration at the time that there might be danger in the skies because of the pay period was coming up for federal workers and certainly air traffic controllers. and they didn't think that that things were going to be safe. and so after 35 days, the federal government reopened. now i'm looking at the floor right now. they have just finished this procedural vote here. this is a point of order. on an unrelated bill by mike lee, the republican senator from utah. this is tammy baldwin, the democratic senator from wisconsin. and the chair, by my notes right now, they're going to go to a vote on another bill. then they will go to that short debate where we'll hear from the leaders very briefly here, maybe even mitch mcconnell, maybe one of his last speeches as the minority leader. he gave his farewell address to the senate

earlier today and certainly chuck schumer. and then we will get to that actual roll call vote. and actually, the reason i think this might go just a little bit faster right now, kevin, than i thought a few minutes ago, as i look off to the side here at the at the floor is that they get everybody on the floor. once you get everybody onto the floor, they can vote a little bit more quickly. it's 100 senators. they vote vocally. there's no electronic card. they either put their thumb up or down, or you hear them call the name and somebody hollers from the back of the chamber if they're a yea or nay. so it's a little more organic the way they do that in the senate compared to the house of representatives. and sometimes it takes longer, even though there's fewer members, simply because it takes a long time to get everybody, all 100 people in the room at the same time. kevin. >> great stuff there. chad. thank you. we'll touch base with you again, and i'm hopeful that maybe we can get this wrapped up here sooner than later. and of course, we'll check in with chad over on the hill in just a bit. meantime, we want to also bring in alexandria hoff for more on

what's been happening. you know, it's interesting. alexandria, i want to know about the trump administration's perspective on what's been happening on capitol hill. you've heard a lot of people talk about not just his influence, the president elect specifically, but also that of a couple of his doge leaders. very interesting times here in washington, alex. yeah, certainly. >> so. and for better or for worse, you know, depending on who you ask, when it comes to influence and what we're hearing tonight from team trump and sources there is that he's actually not too pleased about the outcome in the house today, simply because it does not take up the issue of the debt ceiling. this was something that he was very adamant that the president elect, that he wants this debt ceiling completely done away with, or at least extended through 2029. that did not happen today. but then when you had house speaker mike johnson coming out after this vote, he said that the president elect is very pleased. so there's some back and forth there at this time. he is not expected to weigh in any further. but you had

democrats who, especially last night, were just really fired up, saying that the influence that he has over congress and the influence of elon musk, for example, is just too large that congress is its own body. it's not supposed to be this interwoven with an upcoming president. at the same time, people were looking at the current white house, waiting for those lights to turn on there. and have there be any interaction with president biden and the situation that was unfolding, and that is president elect trump's main point. it was his main point today is that if this whole thing turned out to be a mess, that it really wasn't on the incoming administration, his administration, it's on the current one. it wasn't until the house was already voting that the white house finally issued some support for this legislation. kevin. so it's been an interesting day of power dynamics. who's calling the shots? who wants the shots to be called from somewhere outside the chamber? and it could be indicative of what we are going to see over the next two years, at least, when it

comes to the house. >> let me ask you about that too, alex. i think there are a number of people here in america who feel as if president biden really has more or less quietly quit on the job. that may be an unfair characterization, but what i'm suggesting is he doesn't really seem to be helming a lot of this stuff. when people were talking about the drones, talking about, you know, somehow this, this wall buyback, the possible shutdown, we haven't seen him out there. conversely, we've seen the president elect really running. i'd say running point on this, at least strategically, is that your sense? have you ever seen anything like this? i guess is my question. >> i think to your first point, what's really interesting is that if there was a president sitting back, maybe personally making the decision, i'm going to set my focus elsewhere right now in my final month in this office. that would be one thing. but you in that case, would expect that their social media team or those around them would be pumping out at least some file pictures to say, like, here's what we're doing, focused on this and that, and

that's just not happening. we had a christmas photo tonight. there was something to do with the airport in san diego, i believe that was put out just a couple hours ago while this, you know, legislation was being worked on. and that was from the president's instagram account that i was looking on. so there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of hustle on that end to make, to keep up appearances is what i'm saying. and in the void of that, i think that president elect trump is simply been able to assume this position early in many ways, exactly a month out. >> it's remarkable. and i've covered this town for a long time. i can't remember anything like this ever. and it's it will only get more interesting as we get closer to the real inauguration and the next four years. alex. stick around. thank you so much. meantime, we want to bring in lindy leeds, jenna ludescher and tom fitton. they were joining us as we continue to watch the clock here. and the light is still on over there at the capitol, so they're still hard at work.

tina, your thoughts on what we've seen so far? >> we have to remember that we're fighting over crumbs here effectively. until the great depression, all spending was discretionary and now we've gone from 63% mandatory spending of the federal budget in just 2016 to now. it's 70%. so we're fighting over the remaining 30% of that budget. so whenever we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars for this cancer treatment or this level of senators security or supreme court salary, it's crumbs. and it's why it's an easy fight to take on. and it's why you can get democrats and republicans actually to kind of have some level of ease over it. and it's also why donald trump wants this fight to be past him, because when he goes in for that tcja extension and go in, goes in for that border bill, he does not want to be fighting over keeping these literal lights on. yeah. >> and that's the real challenge for him coming up, lindsey, i know as a democrat you have had a unique

experience, especially after this past campaign for the vice president. sometimes the cash just sort of goes out the door. we have no idea where the money went. and yet as we sit here tonight, $100 billion for disaster aid, that would seem like a democrat priority. they seem happy about this. how do you think this will play in peoria? as the kids used to say? >> kevin reminds me when pelosi said, we have to pass it to find out what's in it. what's in it. yeah. and i want to go back to what you just said earlier about president biden quietly quitting. you said it's not fair, but i actually think it is. i think that was a completely accurate assessment because this is fundamentally dereliction of duty. he's incapable of stepping up. and honestly, this hurts to admit it, but he's been i mean, where has he been? it's seriously a case of where's waldo? and if he clearly is incapable of being commander in chief, and then he endorsed someone who's also also incapable of litigating the responsibilities that a commander in chief must assume. and it's just fundamentally not okay. and you

have karine jean-pierre saying that this is being quiet is her strategy. what? so it really comes down to they're not putting him out there because he simply cannot. he is physically and emotionally cognitively unable to be the president. the lights are off because he has no other choice. >> lindsey makes a really strong point here. tom, keep this in mind. we're talking about a guy who has been in this town for decades, a master of shaking hands, making deals, and he should be out there. i would imagine, as the president, you'd be working the phones even at this late hour saying, are you all right? what can i do to help? and maybe that is being pollyannaish. and yet i'm wondering at this late stage, it looks like they're going to get the job done without him. >> we had the wall street journal report that the head of the armed services committee, democrat, couldn't get in contact with president biden to talk about the afghanistan debacle. why on earth would he

be interested in talking to congress about budget matters if he didn't want to talk about americans being blown up in afghanistan with the leaders of the democratic party? biden's been out of it since before the election, so it's no surprise he isn't running the show here. i'm sure there are white house aides working with schumer and such, but joe biden is prepping to go on vacation again in italy under the guise of a state trip, and he's going down to south america to visit the amazon. so we're watching a retirement in the presidency, literally playing out in slow motion. >> i think alex hoff also hit it, too. it just seems like it's remarkable, even now that that is not happening, there's not even a i would expect a photo. you know, here's the president on the phone and we're not even seeing that. i want to take you back over to the hill 13 minutes after the hour. chad pergram watching the floor for us. chad, what do you know? >> well, we're still waiting for this next roll call vote,

which will be the vote to keep the government open. but what is interesting here is the white house has put out a statement here that is from the office of management and budget. and it basically says here that omb has ceased shutdown preparations because there is a high degree of confidence that congress will imminently pass the relevant appropriations, and the president will sign the bill on saturday, because obligations of federal funds are incurred and tracked on a daily basis, agencies will not shut down and may continue their normal operations. so i talked earlier about the office of personnel management not sending a note saying, hey, we're going to shut down. that was never going to happen. this is key right now. this is the office of management and budget telling all the federal agencies that, hey, they got this bill through the house. there's not going to be a problem in the senate. yes, we're a little bit past that deadline, but guys, don't sweat it. and i know there's an awful lot of federal workers. in fact, i live in the washington, dc region. there are a lot of people calling me federal workers, friends,

others who i know emailing, texting me today saying, hey, chad, what do you know? and so there's high interest in determining whether or not there's going to be a shutdown. there's not. and this is the formal statement here from omb, even though the senate has not voted, and we still think that that vote will start sometime before 1:00 eastern time. kevin. >> chad, before i go back to my panel, if i can ask just a very quick question about chuck schumer, he seemed to be adamant that they should have gone back to the 1500 plus page agreement that they had. this is obviously significantly skinnier to use. >> kevin, let me bear with me here for just one second if i can interrupt. okay. they have just concluded that roll call vote. okay. so if you look at the senate floor here, this is tammy baldwin, the democratic senator from wisconsin, who is reading the vote tally on the unrelated bill that we weren't as concerned with here. this deals with social security. what's going to happen now if you go to the floor, there's probably going to be a short debate. we're going to hear from chuck schumer here. maybe we can listen in. and there he

is. so let's listen in. >> tonight the senate delivers more good news for america. tonight the senate delivers good news for america. there will be no government shutdown right before christmas. this is a good bill. it will keep the government open and funds and helps americans affected by hurricanes and natural disasters, helps our farmers and avoid harmful cuts. we have. order, please. >> the senate will be in order after a chaotic few days in the house. >> it's good news that the bipartisan approach in the end prevailed. it's a good lesson for next year. both sides have to work together, but by dealing with people who've had trouble with investors, by helping our farmers avoid and avoiding harmful cuts, this is a good bill and i'm glad we're passing it. i thank my republican colleagues for

working with us to move this bill quickly through the senate. it's a good outcome for america and the american people. i yield the floor. >> under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration of h.r. 1005 45, which the clerk will report h.r 10545, an act making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year ending september 30th, 2025, and for other purposes. there will now be up to 30 minutes for debate, equally divided. madam president, the senior senator from washington. >> madam president, i will not use 15 minutes, but i do want to just let our colleagues know that i am very pleased. >> so what they're doing right now on the senate floor is this is a short debate. they said there's up to 30 minutes of debate. and this is patty murray, the democratic senator from washington state. she is the chair of the appropriations committee. they control the purse strings here. you might also hear from susan collins, the republican senator from

maine. she is in charge on the republican side. she's the ranking minority member on that committee. and they're going to have this short debate kind of extolling the virtues of this bill and avoiding a government shutdown, even though they got past the midnight deadline here. but then they will get to the actual vote, and we should be able to tell pretty quickly just how fast that vote is going to go, because everybody wants to get out of here. they do need 60 votes in this case to pass this bill. we don't think that that's in question. keep in mind that the house of representatives got 366 votes earlier today. so this vote, when they go to it is probably going to score probably in the 80s. i would think 80 out of 100 senators, give or take. but it's going to be an overwhelming vote. and again, there's not going to be a government shutdown. and the white house has indicated in the past ten minutes here that president biden will sign the bill on saturday. kevin. >> chad. thank you. we'll keep an eye on it. appreciate your time tonight and obviously

staying up late with us. and not just that he always helps us understand what's happening. he's the very best at that. tiana, let me ask you, as you see them push this boulder over the finish line. your thoughts? >> it's first of all notable that biden will not be signing it tonight. but more importantly, there's such little attention paid to the paid to this social security bill that they're voting on before. and quite frankly, it's much more important because they are rating that mandatory spending package. any reconciliation bill through the byrd rule cannot be touched. that's right. social security cannot be touched. that's right. it's only through these massive votes that you can raid social security in order to pay pension funded union federal workers. and in further incentivize and increase that insolvency date. >> and that's what's interesting. and not to dive into inside baseball too much or pbgc wanting to get in there and rescue. these things

usually happen under cover of night in these massive omnibuses. and yet now we're starting to learn more. and i think people are wising up to this. >> that's the magic of doge. >> maybe so. and that's what i'm really hopeful for. >> ellen. >> thank you. absolutely. we've got about 2.5 minutes to go. tom, i want to get you in. and then. lindsey, your thoughts? go ahead. >> you know, on wednesday, it was an important day in many respects. it showed the consequences of the election. i was in meetings on wednesday morning. everyone i heard was unhappy. the republican caucus across the board was unhappy with what mike johnson had planned, had planned in the afternoon. we were all told it's, you know, a done deal. effectively, we may be unhappy, but they're going to do what they typically do is that a rump group of republicans will vote with democrats to pass something that most republican voters would object to, except elon musk. president trump and voters had access to twitter and social media and blew all that up. and i don't think that would have happened prior to

the election. remember, republicans promised to stop this type of activity at the election, you know, in order to retain power. and so now we have a less bad bill, something i still object to, but it would have been a lot worse. but for the consequences of the election, i think tom makes a great point, lindsey. >> and we've got about a minute or so to go. his point being without x, for example. i mean, we could back time this all the way to when elon musk purchased x. but for that purchase, could we crowdsource the way we've been able to find out what's in it? you know, again, going back to that pelosi point, your thoughts, lindsey, on what's happened here tonight. >> kevin, unlike democrats, i'm not going to preheat everything that the trump administration has done. this was successful. his transition has been a tremendous success. and democrats need to acknowledge that they can't just automatically or instinctively oppose and undermine every single one of his efforts. and you know what? the mission of doge is something that we should all herald in support.

fiscal responsibility is something we should all aspire to. this is not a partizan thing. this is an american thing. so i wish president trump the best as a democrat, i sincerely do. and why? it's because i love our country. and that's the attitude that all of us should adopt. >> well, can i get an amen from the choir? amen. let's say amen to that. let's go back over to chad pergram. chad has been watching everything happen for us here tonight. i want to give you an opportunity before we wrap up here. chad, i know that it looks like this is a done deal and could be wrapped up here fairly shortly. what can you tell us? >> well, susan collins, the republican senator from maine, is talking right now. she is the ranking republican on the appropriations committee. they're in charge of spending the money here and allocating where it goes. so this is basically their bill, this interim spending agreement here. we might hear from a couple of other senators, but i'll tell you, the jet fumes are starting to kind of go through the building right now. people want to get to the airport, want to get home, want to get home for christmas, come

back to hit things on january 2nd, january 3rd when the new congress starts. so again, that roll call vote will start probably. i would say again, they allotted 30 minutes. now that doesn't mean much in the senate. they'll take the amount of time that they need. it's probably going to start no later than i would say 1245. in fact, schumer is up right now. he might yield to some others. then they'll have the vote, and then this will be wrapped up probably by 1:00 eastern time. >> kevin, let me ask you about that. >> so if i'm understanding one more second here. yeah. go ahead. this might be the okay. they might be starting the vote right now here tammy baldwin. if i can hear the floor. >> no he's right. it does look like that might be it. >> yeah i think this is going to be the roll call. vote here as soon as. yes. so this is the roll call vote. all right kevin this is the vote itself on funding the government. they started about 24 minutes late. but they'll wrap this up here and we'll have a conclusion very soon. this is the vote on

funding the government. >> yeah. you figure look it's going to be 80 to 20. it may be even more than that. everybody like you said, chad wants to get home. chad pergram always a pleasure, my friend. you're the best. thank you so much for spending time with us tonight. and thank you also to our panel. we appreciate all of you on a friday. merry christmas. happy holidays to all of you. and we thank you at home for watching america's late news, fox news at night. i'm kevin corke in washington and for trace gallagher. have a trace gallagher. have a wonderful christmas. we hope asthma.

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♪ ♪ >> tyrus: that's right, "sunshine in a bank." it looks like the ncaa doesn't care about biological males beating up on female athletes. president charlie baker making some truly boneheaded comments on biological males showing up in ladies locker rooms. >> your guidelines say that transgender student athletes

should be able to use the locker room shower and toilet facilities in accordance with their gender identity. here they are right here. >> everybody else should have an opportunity to use other facilities if they wish to do so. >> okay, the burden is on the women. your guidelines say that biological men can go in and use the women's locker rooms if they want to. what the women want has nothing to do with it. they are not mentioned in here at all. >> i believe our guidelines give people optionality with respect to how they choose to use their facilities. >> the only person who doesn't seem to bear any responsibility and this is you and ncaa. >> tyrus: judge. it's just cringeworthy, when you see this stuff, because this is unfair to trans people. this isn't about trans people. this is about activists and biological men with some sort of condition feeling the need to compete against women when usually they failed against competing against men, and they are still men in the locker room exposing themselves to women.

he just sat there. his body language was awful, so there is some hope for him, i don't -- how did we get here to where that is even a conversation? >> judge jeanine: you know, i think it just points to how our culture is disintegrating. there is so much that was under attack over the last four years, whether it was religion or the catholics or the fbi or the parents concerned about their children, or drag queen story hour, any of the stuff, the crt, all of that, the dei, it was taking away the fundamental institutions of our government. now they want to take away the power of women, and this is such an opportunity for the left that speaks to women to stand up and say, you know what? you've got 520,000 women competitors in the ncaa, right? and we are going to change all the rules for 40 women. that means you 519,960 women,

suck it up for 40 women. that's baloney. and this fool was like this in front of congress. he doesn't know what he is talking about. he kept trying to interject that there were five federal cases. yeah, there are five lawsuits. there is no decision. the only thing was title ix. joe biden tried to change it to include the trannies. no way. let me explain something to you. the supreme court at no point has ruled and specifically instructed the ncaa to allow transgender men to compete -- women -- to compete against women, or to share a woman's locker room. they can scream to the highest hills and say we have rights. no, you don't. these are the week who are allowing them and allowing their radical ideology to interfere by saying you are a transphobe. it's just like radical islamism.

you are an islamophobe, or illegal immigration, you are a xenophobe. you know what, stop with the name-calling. this is not legal. >> tyrus: you call me transphobe, no, i'm a feminist. this is as misogynistic as it gets, jessica, putting the few needs of a few group of biological men ahead of women. women should be safe in the locker room. they should be able to get changed in the locker room without having to see male body parts. i don't understand why we are going to make a special place for them. here's the deal. the men's room, jesse will support me on this, we are the >> this is a fox news alert. i'm chanley painter in new york. crisis averted this morning as congress voted to keep the government open. right now, at least for now. moments ago, the senate began passing a stopgap funding bill. it comes just hours after the same measure passed in the house in a narrow vote. the bill will

then head to president biden's desk to be signed into law later today. the president has indicated he supports this bill. the government did technically shut down after midnight when the senate ran out of time. as they were preparing to cast their votes. the plan includes disaster relief and farming provisions. it, however, does not include a suspension of the debt limit, something president elect trump has been pressuring republicans to address. the plan also extends the government funding deadline to march 14th of next year, and this all comes after several chaotic days on capitol hill as lawmakers scrambled to chart a path forward before this morning's deadline. and they're in the thick of it all. as chad pergram, fox news senior congressional correspondent. chad, what's the latest? >> good morning. well, this vote is still open to fund the government for the senate to align with the house of representatives on this government funding bill. but i can tell you that they have enough votes to pass the bill. nothing is final until they

gavel it down. this is tammy baldwin, the democratic senator from wisconsin who is presiding right now. that will be the finality of this vote here. but the fact that they've crossed that threshold, they needed 60 votes to pass this bill, and they are above that level right now. so this is going to pass. yes. they missed the deadline. it was 12:00 eastern time here. but this is going to pass and go to president biden. the white house has indicated that he will sign this tomorrow. and just the fact that they missed that deadline, it really doesn't mean much because, again, the government did not shut down. it was, you know, figured out this afternoon once the house recorded 366 yeas in favor of this bill, that the government was not going to shut down. it was just kind of a fait accompli before it got to the senate. >> that's right. now, chad, remind those watching how we got here, because it has been a couple of days of just back and forth, a couple of proposals that failed the house voting against one yesterday. walk us through how we finally get here tonight. >> well, it was an original 1500 page bill that house

speaker mike johnson put out. we got it tuesday. and there were all sorts of things that members, frankly, from both sides of the aisle, soured on. there was a congressional pay raise in that bill. there were provisions that some people thought were quite necessary, full funding to rebuild the francis scott key bridge in baltimore. there was disaster relief, $110 billion, which is a staggering figure to address the hurricanes in florida and also in north carolina. also, the wildfires in maui from last year. and that was eventually taken out in this bill because that bill just could not pass. so what house speaker mike johnson did once president elect trump kind of expressed his displeasure in this bill, he wanted an increase in the debt ceiling because that's something he's going to have to probably wrestle with in the first quarter of the year. he got into this and elon musk started to absolutely trash this bill on x, and a lot of republican members in particular ran for the exit. so what mike johnson did is he put

put together a skinnier bill. and that bill only got 174 votes. they couldn't even get a simple majority in the house of representatives. there were 38 republicans who voted no. so they went back to the drawing board again, right up against the deadline, and they got 366 votes there today. we don't know the final vote total on this bill right now in the senate. but as we indicate, it's well above 60 votes. and that's why it's going to pass in the next 15 or 20 minutes here. and the government will not shut down. >> yeah, better late than never there on that, chad. but as far as moving forward, what does this indicate, especially the last couple of days for speaker mike johnson and his future as speaker of the house? >> well, this has been a rocky period for him. he thought he had his ducks in a row. he did not. it probably did not help affairs. once musk and president elect trump got involved, you know, president elect trump and mike johnson, they went to the army-navy football game last week. and people thought that, you know,

this bill had been socialized and the president elect had really not said much about it. people thought that everybody was on the same page. we never got the bill text, you know, over the weekend what people have been saying. corey mills, a republican from florida, a few others have started to indicate that they really have reservations about mike johnson. andy harris, he's a republican congressman from maryland, the eastern shore, and he has indicated that he might not support mike johnson here. that's a powerful voice in the conservative wing of that conference. put out a statement today that he's kind of undecided. and what they have to do channel on january 3rd, that's when the new congress starts, is they have to elect a speaker first. and if you do not elect a speaker, the house of representatives can do nothing, absolutely nothing. they can't even swear in the new members. and that's why when you go back to 2023, where they took 15 votes, the longest speaker's vote since the late 1850s, over five days before they elected kevin mccarthy. and what that did was

it kind of stymied the start of the congress passing bills. you can't do any of those things. and right now it appears that they are closing this vote here. so this is this is in fact, you know, done in the in the senate. but again, that's going to be a problem for mike johnson because they're going to have that narrow majority in the house. you know, one one vote is all he can lose in the early part of the year, especially on that speaker's vote. and that doesn't, you know, portend good things for him. >> that's right. >> do we want to take a second and listen in? let's listen in for a second. as the vote has now officially passed. >> thank you. >> and of course, chad, they stop talking as we were going to listen in there. >> but what happens now is tim kaine, the democratic that's tim kaine, the democratic senator from virginia, who is presiding. he had just read the vote total. the final vote. there was 85 to 11, 85 yeas, 11

days. and that's kind of the ballpark that we thought it was going to be in. what tim kaine is doing there, running through a lot of basic paperwork. now, you see this at the end of a session day in the senate, and there's probably going to go on probably, frankly, for about another hour, stuff that we're not going to be too interested in and probably bore people a little bit because a lot of it's administrative, especially at the end of a, of a session like this. and this is the last vote of the congress, frankly. so, you know, this isn't going to be as important right now, but they have passed that bill. i want to flag one thing that's interesting, that doesn't have anything to do directly with the senate, but with the house. and because i talk about the end of the congress, we were told and i was able to report earlier this week on tuesday, confirming this report, that the house ethics committee was going to release its report on matt gaetz, the former congressman from florida who resigned and was up briefly to be the attorney general nominee about his conduct. and what we had confirmed is that the house ethics committee was going to release that ethics study on

gaetz's conduct when he was a member. after the final vote in the house of this congress. we believe that that has certainly happened. that was the final vote in the house earlier this evening and the 6:00 hour. so now we wait. does that come out later tonight? does it come out next week, christmas eve? it would have to come out before the end of this congress. but that's one bit of untidy work that they have to deal with. and there will be a lot of interested parties to see what's in that ethics committee report. >> absolutely astute point. there will be on the lookout for that. as far as the bill tonight passing, what do you think really brought it over the edge as far as getting it through the house? now the senate, who are the winners and losers, if you will, as of right now? >> well, the winners right now are certainly the people who needed the disaster relief i talked about in maui from a long time ago. there were tornadoes in the midwest, but obviously the most attention from the dual tornadoes, i'm sorry, hurricanes of helene and milton in the fall in north

carolina. just utter devastation in some of those areas. yes, that's a big dollar figure. but that money needed to go out the door. what that does is it reloads fema's coffers to respond for immediate needs. in other words, if there's another set of natural disasters or earthquakes or big blizzards or something this this winter, they have enough money and they can respond immediately. the other thing that it does, it allows a lot of these property owners, business owners, to rebuild and fix roads, all that type of infrastructure that's going to be key in this. and then the other part of this is the small business administration was unable to put money out the door to help you rebuild your cafe or your gun shop or whatever it is that you ran. if you were devastated by the storms and the flooding down there so they could process the claims, they just couldn't send you a check that was in abeyance really, since the end of september. i mean, the sba said they just didn't have the money. they said, we'll take the claims. so those are definitely the biggest winners right now. and the

other big winner certainly are the federal workers, the federal workforce, because the government did not shut down at the holidays. >> yeah, that's a great point. now we look forward to march 14th. right, chad, what needs to happen between now and then? >> well, keep in mind that these funding bills, there's 12 that run the federal government were supposed to be done on the 30th of september. we are into fiscal year 2025 right now. and here you're going to be well into the calendar year 2025 and starting to work on the fiscal year spending bills for 2026, which starts in october of next year. you see how this is how the you know, the planes get backed up at laguardia here. this is the problem. so they have to fund all these things and figure out what they can do. the important thing to know is that these are basically democratic funding levels. the democrats, or at least some democratic influence. president biden is still in the white house. so, you know, he was able to put his stamp on these

bills. that's where some republicans were saying, hey, let's try to get as many wins out of this as we can. so the democratic wins continue, at least for a while. however, there is an asterisk next to that. the military gets the most money from congress. this is what we call discretionary spending, where there are about 52 to 55% of all money that congress spends. well, if your money is flat for six months from october of this past fall into march, and you're the military that really puts them behind the eight ball because, you know, they get the most money from congress. and you had adam smith, the democratic representative from washington state, who's the top democrat on the armed services committee, talking about these so-called crs. you hear that abbreviation all the time, short for continuing resolution, because it continues the funding at the current level, there's no new funding. and so that really puts the screws to the military. and so they're a loser in this. the fact that they're operating on a

continued budget from the last fiscal year, rather than new money in the new year. and this also spells problems. how are they going to fund the government in march? it's going to be republicans with the senate, republicans with the house, president elect trump in the white house. how do they solve this? come springtime? >> exactly. and will it come down to the wire like it did tonight? chad, in your experience, will we have this last minute overnight special with you in march? >> i will probably be here. we will probably be talking in march. that's usually the way these things go. absolutely. i might not talk to you until then, but i'll put it on my calendar. we'll be here march 14th. >> that's right. and so for those just joining again, the senate passing this bill to fund the government, 85 to 11 there, chad. and we had about 37 or so minutes of a technical shutdown. what does that mean? >> if anything, it just shows that they just couldn't get their act together in time. and why, you know, this deadline,

you know, funding that we go through every cycle, it's repeated. there's a reason why they made the deadline december 20th. why? because they knew that everybody wanted to get home for christmas. it's one of the rare times that they actually do get out on time to go home and spend some time with the families. the new congress starts immediately on the 3rd of january. so, you know, this period is kind of hallowed, just not for religious purposes, but for families, members of congress. et cetera. to go home or do whatever they they need to do to take that break. there's a reason why they they kind of put that that deadline there. and you talk to some of the conservatives, you talk to mike lee, republican from utah. you talked to warren davidson, a republican from ohio. they say that it's kind of insidious that they always do this deadline because they're like, okay, here's this bill. you got to vote for it, or we're going to be stuck here over the holidays and it's take it or leave it. and that's precisely why, in this case, the 1500 page bill blew up just a couple of days ago.

>> exactly. are we hearing anything from either side, the white house or president elect trump's team? now that this is officially past this stage, i'm going to look on my phone here because like i said, i've been on the air here and i've not seen anything definitive. >> we were told we were told that the president elect was okay with this. president biden, as has been well reported, has been kind of underground and not really saying much of anything other than that statement from the office of management and budget that he would sign the bill on saturday. >> well, chad, we are approaching the commercial break in a couple of minutes, but i want to give you an opportunity for your final thoughts in your plethora of experience, how maybe this compares to the prior down to the wire votes that you've covered and how we reach where we are? >> yeah, we've been through worse. frankly, this was not as as bad. we had a similar situation a couple of years ago where they had that technical shutdown. they got just a couple of minutes. i was standing right in the same place in the senate when they got a few minutes past midnight. so yes, there was a

shutdown, but nobody really cared the same instance here. the really epic ones were the big shutdown in 2019 that went into 2020, 35 days. and i talked about the combination of shutdowns in 1990, 1995 and into 1996. and that's kind of when some of these big government shutdowns became in vogue. we really didn't talk much about them. that's when they really started and became politically dangerous, frankly. >> chad pergram there on the hill, thank you so much for staying up late or i guess early morning with me tonight. we appreciate your insights so much and we'll see you in march. i hope you get some sleep and merry christmas. happy holidays to you my friend and you at home if you're just joining us. crisis averted. congress has voted to keep the government open, at least for now. moments ago, the senate passing that stopgap funding bill that chad was just talking about. it comes hours after the same measure passed in the house in a narrow vote. so the bill now heads to president biden's desk in the morning or later today to be signed into law. stay with fox news for all law. stay with fox news for all the latest on this and muc

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>> jessica: welcome back. the party never stops even when you are dead. a funeral home in ohio is applying for their liquor license. here is the co-owner. >> my role in this position is to kind of be a party planner

for dead people. be more of a celebration of life than more of the multi-day traditional services, which cost a lot of money. >> jessica: jesse, had not seen the video and did not know this funeral home was run by a child, but now it all makes sense. >> jesse: like the party bros we had on "watters world" on the weekend. i had this book on johnny carson, a policy never went to funerals, which is some thing he didn't do. so from now on, i'm not going to a single funeral -- i'm not even going to my own funeral. >> jessica: i think that will be up to emma. jeanine? >> judge jeanine: i think it's a great idea. people are depressed. they are sad. unless you are the kind of person who drinks and becomes angry, i say why not? did he have a burette in his hair? >> jesse: we have to see that. >> dana: like from rudolph. i have a policy, i don't go to

baby showers. >> jesse: all right, see, you can make policies. >> dana: but i send a gift. on this one, they should make sure they have some sort of partnership with a rideshare program because if people are going to get wasted at the funeral, they cannot be driving drunk afterwards. >> jessica: be right back. >> tyrus: this is a horrible idea. as bad as his hair. we should be idea-shaming. nothing is worse when everyone gets drunk and keeps it real at the funeral. i never liked him come anyways. it's all going to come out. dad loved you more. he didn't love me, then all of a sudden -- and he was having an affair with the neighbor. no, no, you keep alcohol out the funeral. >> judge jeanine: only if the girlfriend -- >> tyrus: preacher gets drunk, it is all bad. this is what happens -- this is nepotism. tablets on come up with an idea for the family business, and this is going to end horribly. >> jessica: funerals are also way too expensive. >> dana: agree.

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>> i'm going to go see if i can help this lady out a little bit more. you guys. >> it's time now for one more thing. >> jesse palacios in new jersey. stella, you have to see this christmas dish. it's brand new, and it's an instant classic. it's a two foot tall ravioli christmas tree. this is their saucy tree. they also have a sugary tree that has powdered sugar and marshmallows. we got to try it, everybody. >> fried ravioli. right. >> it's fried ravioli. a little judge. no. oh, yeah. >> it's like jenga. there you go. all right. i tried to get one, though. hit him up. >> oh, that's so good. and this is just a great housewarming gift. >> i think it's great. for who? >> for you. for me? no. legit. >> tonight, jesse watters. primetime. what we found inside the mega spending bill. it will make you sick. >> okay. all right. jessica. you're next.

>> okay. two basketball head coaches having a little festive fun. showing up at last night's game. and matching grinch sweaters. michigan state spartans head coach tom izzo and oakland golden grizzlies. greg, is it camp or campy? campy longtime friends both been a major part of michigan's basketball scene. izzo had previously said that the programs have a, quote, little miniature rivalry, but their grinch outfit coordination shows mutual respect and solidarity. >> okay, judge. >> okay. don't do the next yo. this mischievous. they're doing it anyway. a doodle was waiting to help santa on top of a roof. and he managed to make he. so there's doodle siamese on a rooftop. he's waiting for santa, but he couldn't come down. so the fire department got him down in boise. congratulations. >> all right. well. remember, jesse watters takes it from here.