House GOP pursues stopgap measure to avoid government shutdown

Washington — House Republicans are pursuing a stopgap measure to keep the government funded through September, looking to shore up support for the continuing resolution with less than 10 days to prevent a government shutdown. 

Speaker Mike Johnson has outlined plans for the measure, which is expected to extend funding at current levels through the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, and has the backing of President Trump. But Republicans are facing pressure to do so without support from Democrats. And whether Johnson can get the measure through the House, with a razor-thin Republican majority, remains to be seen. 

Members of the House Freedom Caucus, who often oppose the temporary funding measures, are meeting with the president at the White House Wednesday as Republicans move forward with the funding plan, which could be voted on early next week. Johnson told reporters Tuesday that he’s hoping to release the text of the continuing resolution by the end of the week. 

In recent years, funding the government has created a headache for Johnson and his predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, because of the narrow GOP majority in the House and opposition to temporary funding measures by a group of conservative hardliners. The dynamic has repeatedly forced Republicans to rely on Democrats to keep the government funded, fueling frustration among members of the House GOP ranks.

But Democrats, now in the minority in both chambers and with few opportunities for leverage, are in a different position. As the Trump administration works to dramatically and quickly downsize large swaths of the executive branch, Democrats have been seeking guardrails on Mr. Trump’s ability to withhold funding approved by Congress and are intent on including language in the funding measure. Without the guardrails, Democrats argue that the stopgap measure would give the administration more opportunities to cut federal programs. 

Johnson told reporters Tuesday that he thinks what Democrats are requesting is “unconstitutional,” saying “this should be a conversation about numbers, and not about limiting the other branch of government.”

Without support from Democrats, House Republicans must keep their conference in line to approve the stopgap measure. Johnson has touted the approach in recent days, which he billed as one that would keep the government open while House Republicans work to incorporate savings from the DOGE effort and revenue brought in by Trump administration policies. He noted on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that the DOGE cuts wouldn’t be included in the forthcoming continuing resolution, while promising a “very different process” on next year’s funding.

During the last funding fight in December, Johnson pushed for an extension until March to set Republicans up to reach an agreement on new spending bills with a GOP trifecta in Washington. And he noted at the time that House Republicans were aiming to resolve the government funding fight earlier in the year, before the March 14 deadline. But the existing dynamics have persisted, even with Republican majorities in both chambers.

Amid the standoff and approaching deadline, Republicans and Democrats have begun blaming each other. While Republicans say Democrats are flirting with a shutdown with their demands, Democrats argue that the GOP majorities would be responsible for any possible shutdown, and they claim Republicans have left the negotiating table.

Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democratic appropriator in the Senate, said Tuesday that she’s urging Republican leadership to work on new, full-year funding bills and prevent a shutdown with a shorter continuing resolution. She stressed that Democrats “cannot stand by and accept” what she called a “power grab CR that would help Elon take a chainsaw to programs that families rely on.”

“I’m ready to pass a short-term CR immediately to take down the risk of a shutdown so that we can finish our negotiations and write our full-year spending bills, which is our job to do,” Murray added.

Even if House Republicans can approve the six-month funding measure along party lines, a 60-vote threshold in the Senate means the measure would require the backing of at least seven Democrats to be approved in the upper chamber. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, however, who has said “Republicans are responsible for funding the government,” called for collaboration on a solution. 

“We believe, we’ve always believed, the only solution is a bipartisan solution,” Schumer said. 

contributed to this report.