U.S. House Republicans announced a spending bill that will continue to fund federal agencies until September 30th on Saturday, pushing Goit Aron’s strategy that they believe is certain to spark a major conflict with Democrats over the outline of government spending.
The 99-page bill will slightly boost the defense program while trimming non-defense programs below the 2024 budget year level. That approach is likely a non-starter for most Democrats who have long argued that defense and non-defense spending move in the same direction.
Congress must act by midnight Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown.
Speaker Mike Johnson is teeing the bill for Tuesday’s vote despite a lack of support from Democrats, essentially boldly voting against them and putting a shutdown at risk. He also bets that Republicans can make the law into muscle through the House, primarily by itself.
Usually, when government was going to keep it completely open for business, Republicans had to work with Democrats to create a bipartisan measure that both parties could support. That’s because Republicans almost always lack the vote to pass their own spending bills.
Importantly, this strategy has Donald Trump’s support. Donald Trump has shown his ability to line up Republicans in his term.
“All Republicans need to vote (please!) next week, yes,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday.
House Republican leadership staff outlined the measure on Saturday, saying it could cost around $892.5 billion in defence spending and about $708 billion in non-defence spending. Defence spending is slightly above the previous year’s level, but non-defense is below about 8%.
Leadership aides said the agreement does not include various side contracts designed to mitigate non-defense programs due to reduced spending. These secondary agreements were part of negotiations when Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Kevin McCarthy took office. The negotiations allowed an extension of the debt cap in exchange for curbing spending. Under the terms of that contract, both defensive and non-defensive spending were scheduled to increase by 1% this year.
The measure does not include funds that individual lawmakers have requested for thousands of community projects across the country.
The bill does not cover a large portion of government spending, including programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Funding for these two programs is at Autopilot and is not regularly reviewed by Congress.
Republican leader Ralph Norman said he never voted for a continuous solution – a lawmaker often calls it CR, but he’s riding on Johnson’s efforts. He said he is confident in Trump and the so-called “government efficiency” led by Elon Musk.
“I don’t like CRS,” Norman said. “But what’s the alternative? Negotiate with the Democrats? No.”
“Do I freeze my spending for six months and identify more cuts? Someone will tell me that it’s not a victory in Washington,” added Republican representative Chip Roy.
Republicans also hope that by setting up spending this year, they can do their best to extend individual tax cuts passed during Trump’s first term and raise the country’s debt restrictions to avoid catastrophic federal defaults.
Democratic leaders warn that decisions to move forward without consulting them will increase the prospect of closure. One of their biggest concerns is the flexibility that the law gives the Trump administration to spend.
“We’re a sought-after,” said Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a leading Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee.
The democratic leaders in both rooms emphasize that Republicans have a majority and are responsible for funding the government. But leaders are also wary of saying how Democrats will vote for ongoing resolutions.
“We have to wait to see what their plans are,” Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer said. “We have always believed that the only solution is a bipartisan solution.”
Trump has met with House Republicans to win legislative votes. Republicans have a majority of 218-214 in the House, so if all lawmakers vote, if Democrats unite against each other, they can only afford one asylum. Mathematics will become even more difficult in the Senate, where at least seven Democrats have to vote for the law to overcome the filibuster. And it assumes that all 53 Republicans will vote for it.
