WASHINGTON — The path to averting a government shutdown at the end of the week remains murky in the Republican-controlled Congress.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is eying a House vote Tuesday on a six-month funding extension that was crafted on a partisan basis. His strategy is to rely on only Republican votes to pass it in the House and dare Democrats to oppose it.
If it passes the House, where a simple majority is needed, the legislation will require 60 votes in the Senate, meaning at least seven Democrats would need to back it to break a filibuster.
But congressional Democrats have blasted the stopgap funding measure after they were cut out of the negotiations. They object to some of the changes, which feature an increase in military spending and a reduction in non-defense money. And they have demanded guardrails on President Donald Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s attempts to slash or freeze some spending.
“The president has been deciding how to spend the money anyway he wants even when we have a budget that both Democrats and Republicans voted on. That’s a constitutional issue, right? Everyone knows Congress has the power of the purse,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said Sunday on “Meet The Press.”
“So I just – until I see some assurances that whatever we pass next week is going to ensure that the money is spent the way Congress intends, I’m going to withhold my vote until I see that,” she added.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on Appropriations Committee, issued a memo describing how Republicans had structured the bill to take control away from Congress to fund certain federal programs and hand the Trump administration more flexibility in how to spend the money.
Murray’s memo said the Johnson measure creates “slush funds for the Trump administration to reshape spending priorities, eliminate longstanding programs, pick winners and losers.”
The specific cuts are not spelled out in the legislation. But according to Murray, potential cuts to non-defense spending could include funding for combatting fentanyl and other substance abuse programs, as well as National Institutes of Health priorities like Alzheimer’s disease and vaccine research.
On top of that, it gives the the Trump administration broad discretion on choosing Army Corps of Engineer projects, military construction projects and transit improvement projects, the memo said, “leaving Democratic states and priorities in the lurch.”
The bill would also would restrict Washington, D.C.’s local funding levels to fiscal year 2024, resulting in a roughly $1 billion cut and potentially impacting police, firefighters and teachers.
Johnson has little room for error to get his measure through the House. Republicans hold a 218-214 majority, following the sudden death last week of Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Texas. That means Johnson can afford just one Republican defection if all members are present and voting. If some Democrats are absent, it could give Johnson a slightly larger cushion.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has made it crystal clear he will vote against the continuing resolution, blasting both parties over failing to cut spending.
“Unless I get a lobotomy Monday that causes me to forget what I’ve witnessed the past 12 years, I’ll be a NO on the CR this week,” Massie wrote on X on over the weekend. “It amazes me that my colleagues and many of the public fall for the lie that we will fight another day.”
If Republicans can muscle the bill through the House this week, then all eyes will be on Slotkin and other Senate Democrats.
Because of their 53-47 majority and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., vowing to oppose the measure over spending concerns, Republicans will need Democratic votes to overcome the 60-vote threshold in the upper chamber.
So far, not a single Democrat in either the House or the Senate has said they will vote yes on the bill.
Trump has backed Johnson’s bill, urging Republicans over the weekend to vote for it.
“I am asking you all to give us a few months to get us through to September so we can continue to put the Country’s ‘financial house’ in order,” Trump posed on Truth Social. “Democrats will do anything they can to shut down our Government, and we can’t let that happen.”
