CNN
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House Speaker Mike Johnson officially announced plans on Saturday for a halt of government funding until September 30th. It aims to stem the possibility of a March 14 suspension and buy time for Donald Trump and GOP leaders to manipulate the president’s agenda through Congress this summer.
But top Democrat spending leaders quickly denounced the door for supporting the measure, raising the illusion of a high stakes conflict next week.
The president himself approved the measure on Saturday. This includes cutting domestic spending programs that Democrats are likely to oppose. GOP’s leadership aide said defense spending would increase by about $6 billion on Saturday and domestic spending would fall by about $13 billion.
GOP’s leadership also emphasized that the plan does not include partisan policy add-ons, but includes certain White House funding requests, including new money that will help immigrate and customs enforcement to provide additional deportation.
But amidst ominous signs of its ability to stop Congress closure next week, top Senate Democrat spending negotiators quickly panned the GOP plan.
“Speaker Johnson has rolled out an ongoing resolution from the Slash Fund that gives Donald Trump and Elon Musk more power to give more power than federal spending, which threatens families in blue and red states,” Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, said on Saturday. Connecticut Rep. Rosa Delauro, a Murray counterpart at home, was even dull, writing a bill that “I am strongly opposed to this.”
House GOP leaders believe the plan is on track to pass through the room, and claim that Trump’s support will help win robust support among floor House Republicans this week. Johnson hopes to vote on the 99-page bill on Tuesday, according to people familiar with the plan.
But it remains unclear how strong the funding deadline will be next week’s showdown with the president if strong Democrats, who are furious about Trump’s cuts to the federal program, endanger the government’s shutdown, which could hurt more federal workers.
“It would be a tough choice for Democrats right now to decide whether Democrats want to be something that shuts down the government,” House GOP leadership aide, who is speaking about the terms of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, told reporters on Saturday. “It’s literally just as beautiful CR as you can draft.”
As Johnson expects, if short-term funding measures pass the House next week, they will put a lot of pressure on Senate Democrats to follow the same plan.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and his leadership team also said they would like to continue negotiating instead of pursuing a long-term stop. But it’s not clear how forceful Senate Democrats will push against the bill if Schumer and his team arrive in the Senate.
Last week, he asked if enough Democrats would support the bill to allow Murray to pass the Senate, Murray told CNN “I’m not going to speculate.”
Before being released, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was strongly opposed to the plan – preferring long-term negotiation deals – and Johnson and his GOP said they had to pass it on their own. However, a minority of House Democrats have recently been debating personally whether or not they should support the bill.
Johnson and Trump have described the bill as a “clean” suspension bill. It notes that it does not include languages that disgrace certain Trump priorities, such as Doge Cuts. But Democrats argue that this type of long-term suspension bill lacks the key language included in the year-round negotiation bill that makes it easier for parties to check on Trump when necessary.
Republicans acknowledged StopGup to grant more authority to the White House. This is the flexibility that explains that GOP leadership is needed if Congressional spending is spent on autopilot for another seven months.
“The House and Senate have put together a very good funding bill (“CR”) under the circumstances! All Republicans need to vote next week (please!)
“There’s something amazing coming to America, and we’re asking you all to give us months to bring us in September.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Betsy Klein and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.
