While President-elect Donald Trump’s comments trashing House Speaker Mike Johnson’s short-term government funding bill sent House Republicans into a tailspin Wednesday night, Senate Republicans were left to make sense of the remaining pieces .

Congress must act to fund the government by midnight Friday or risk a shutdown. With the House of Representatives back at the drawing board, the clock is ticking.

Because of the nature of government funding legislation, the Senate is typically in a wait-and-see position until the House decides. That’s especially true this time, when Johnson must get his slim House majority to pass legislation Trump will find palatable before the Senate decides whether he can accept it.

The looming funding deadline means the Senate will most likely be forced to endure whatever Johnson can get through the House, unless it is so unacceptable that senators are willing to shut down the government over it. The Democrats will rule the Senate for a few more days, and the 60-vote threshold in the Senate makes compromises unavoidable.

During late votes Wednesday night, Senate Republicans weighed in on the government’s current funding situation with just over 48 hours remaining before a shutdown.

Many say they were unhappy with Johnson’s original proposal

Despite the challenges Congress now faces in completing work on government funding, there are a number of Senate Republicans who admit they were unhappy with the House proposal that Johnson put forward on Tuesday. Some are happy that Trump has stepped up to initiate change.

“This is intended to be a CR that expands the status quo. And let it be lean and mean,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-LA. “Well, I mean, it might have been mean, but it wasn’t lean. And I think we need to go back to a real CR to pass, which is just an extension of the status quo.”

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-SD, said all the “crap” associated with the House CR is “very, very disappointing to me.”

He signaled a willingness to support a clean CR through disaster relief.

There appears to be some interest in re-opening discussion about a way forward, but time is short and there are now a number of very sensitive issues that require a lot of negotiation with very little time.

Southern Republicans draw the line at disaster relief

As House Republicans go back to the drawing board to try to meet Trump’s demands, it is clear they will have to balance them against the full-throated insistence of many Senate Republicans that billions in disaster aid remain tied to this bill.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, whose home state of South Carolina was hit hard by Hurricane Helene, said he would vote against a funding bill that does not provide relief for his and other affected states.

He called it a “moral imperative to bring money into the system.”

“We need disaster relief. I can’t go home and play like nothing happened,” Graham said. “Anyone who thinks disaster relief is pork: come to where I live and see what happened in my state of North Carolina and Georgia.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, whose home state was affected by both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, said he would do everything in his power to slow passage of a federal funding bill that did not include funds for relief efforts.

“I feel very comfortable. (If) we don’t get a catastrophe in the bill, I’m going to do everything I can to keep us there until we do,” Tillis said.

Tillis said he spoke with Vice President-elect Vance on Wednesday and said that Vance “understood” the importance of disaster relief.

“JD gets it. I spoke to him this afternoon. He understands the need to do disaster recovery there,” Tillis said. “Most people, at least JD and others, believe we need to do the disaster supplement.”

Republicans are open to raising the debt limit but skeptical that they can achieve it within that timetable

Trump significantly complicated the government’s funding issues when he proposed at the last second to include a federal debt ceiling increase in this package. It has left some Republicans uncertain about how to proceed.

“I don’t think he’s wrong,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-LA, when asked if Trump’s debt limit proposal was helpful. “But it complicates things.”

That’s an understatement.

In recent years, it has taken months for debt limit negotiations to be carefully initiated. A number of Senate Republicans acknowledged tonight that while they would support raising the debt limit in this bill, getting yes to it in the tiny window of time remaining will be a real challenge.

“I don’t know how we do it,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-SD. “I mean, I’m open to ideas about it, but I don’t know how we do it.”

Graham said he would leave the debt limit decision to Trump, but acknowledged it would require Democratic approval.

“I don’t know how this will play out. I know it, we don’t want to become insolvent. There are many Republicans who will never vote to raise the debt ceiling for ideological reasons,” Graham said.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, acknowledged that getting all Republicans to support raising the debt limit would be a challenge.

“I don’t know if Republicans will vote for it, especially the Freedom Caucus, so I think we’ll take it one step at a time,” Cornyn said.

Tillis also acknowledged that Democrats would have to agree to a plan to raise the debt limit. And with the deadline for that still months away, he said he wasn’t sure what would inspire Democrats to enter last-minute negotiations on the issue.

“I just think there has to be more to it than just demanding it get in, because again, there’s no burning platform,” Tillis said.

Calls with Trump

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO, said he spoke with Trump shortly before he made his original statement today discouraging Republicans from supporting Johnson’s short-term government bill.

Hawley said Trump thinks Speaker Johnson’s CR is a “complete disaster.”

Hawley criticized Johnson for “clearly” not including Trump in the bill’s negotiation process.

“I pointed this out to him, the president, through the leadership of the House of Representatives. I mean, is this going to be the norm? Will we do this? You’re going to – is this going to be the standard that we set?”

ABC News asked Hawley if Trump had specifically expressed his frustration with Johnson, and Hawley replied “yes.”

But that was refuted by Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-OK.

“I spoke to the president several times today. I wouldn’t categorize it as frustration with the speaker,” Mullin said.

Mullin said it had been expressed to Johnson “for a while” that Trump wanted to raise the debt limit.

“He wants the debt ceiling to be included in whatever package they propose, but he absolutely disagrees with it, as far as he’s upset.”

The Musk Factor

The senators appeared to downplay the importance of Elon Musk’s influence on the current situation. On Wednesday, Musk used his social media platform X to repeatedly criticize the bill backed by Johnson.

“I think there are people who put too much weight on Musk or anyone else voicing their opinion. I think there were structural challenges, first of all,” Tillis said. “These external influences have an impact, but I think that came from within and not from without. I’ve seen some reports about how Elon basically vetoed it because it had a structural problem before anyone commented on it.

When asked about Musk’s comments, Hawley appeared to brush aside his concerns.

“As someone who doesn’t like the CR, I welcome the criticism,” Hawley said.