Government shutdown live updates: Cancer research, China provisions lost from bipartisan deal

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Friday blasted Republicans for prioritizing Elon Musk's budget ideas over child cancer research.

Musk helped to tank a bipartisan spending bill that included over $100 million for pediatric cancer research. The second funding bill pitched by House Republicans, which failed to pass on Thursday night, did not contain those funds.

The initial compromise bill also included new policy provisions to help kids with cancer on Children's Health Insurance Program and Medicaid travel across state lines to receive gene therapies in other states. It also had a provision to allow studies and clinical trials for kids with a combination of drugs and treatments.

It also had language to protect rural broadband customers from predatory and junk service providers; a provision to prohibit deepfake porn; an entire bill about strengthening semiconductor supply chains; and new provisions going after hotels for hidden fees.

Provisions aimed at countering concerns about China's influence that both parties share were also in the bipartisan bill. The language would have hemmed in some American investment in China by blocking some transactions in some areas like technology and chip manufacturing, and would have mandated U.S. government reviews of Chinese real estate purchases near American national security sites.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if Americans should be prepared for the government to shut down.

"I think there's still time. We believe there's still time for that to not happen, for Republicans to do the right thing, to hold up their part of the deal and move forward with the bipartisan agreement," she said. "There's still time and our focus is keeping the government open. That's what we want to see. And we hope Republicans want to do that."

Asked if President Joe Biden would remain in Washington should a shutdown occur, Jean-Pierre rejected getting into hypotheticals.

"We believe, as I just said moments ago, there's still time to get to a bypass, to get to a deal here or move forward," she said.

Jean-Pierre noted, though, that agencies began notifying employees at noon on Friday of their potential furlough in preparation for a possible shutdown.

President Joe Biden, who has yet to publicly weigh in on the funding battle, has been in touch with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Friday.

Jean-Pierre told reporters at the daily briefing that Biden has been getting regular updates about what's unfolding on Capitol Hill.

When pressed on why Biden hasn't spoken out himself, Jean-Pierre said Republicans bear the responsibility to fix this issue.

"Americans need to know that Republicans are getting in the way here, and they are the ones who have created this mess," she said. "That's the reality. That's the fact."

"This is not the first time we've been here, and the president has had this approach before. He understands how Congress works," she continued. "He's been around for some time. He understand what strategy works here to get this done."

House Republicans met behind closed doors at 12:30 p.m. ET to discuss a new plan to avert a government shutdown -- as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says the "lines of communication have been reopened" with Speaker Mike Johnson.

According to sources, Johnson planned to propose the House take several individual votes on pieces of the slimmed-down agreement that failed on the floor Thursday night, including a continuing resolution to fund the government through March 14, $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers and $100 billion in disaster relief.

Those are the core pillars of the bipartisan proposal that was tanked by Trump and Musk. It's unclear whether Republicans will make another attempt to take up the debt limit -- Trump's key demand -- in this latest round of votes.