By WASHINGTON — The path to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week remains murky in the Republican-controlled Congress.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is eyeing 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.
Democratic senators overwhelmingly reacted negatively to the measure Monday, saying the House shouldn’t count on their votes for a bill they weren’t involved with.
Johnson expressed confidence to reporters Monday that the stopgap funding measure would pass both chambers of Congress.
“No one wants to shut the government down, and we are governing, doing the responsible thing as Republicans,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be up to [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats to do the right thing, and I don’t think they’re going to shut the government down.”
Johnson has little room for error to get his measure through the House. Republicans hold a 218-214 majority, meaning Johnson can afford just one Republican defection if all members are present. If some Democrats are absent, it could give Johnson a slightly larger cushion.
Johnson has a key ally in his corner in President Donald Trump. Trump and his top aides have been placing calls urging undecided Republicans to support the continuing resolution, according to three sources with knowledge of the calls. Trump publicly urged Republicans to support it on Truth Social over the weekend and met with a group of conservatives at the White House last week.
Vice President JD Vance will also visit with House Republicans Tuesday during their weekly conference meeting, an additional source said.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, said he’s “closer to yes” after having had conversations with Trump’s team over the weekend, saying the bill could unlock ways to reduce spending down the road.
“And so I feel a lot more confident that is going to be the path after having those conversations and assurances,” Burlison said.
Still, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has made it 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 over the weekend. “It amazes me that my colleagues and many of the public fall for the lie that we will fight another day.”
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said the stopgap funding bill “is not something we could ever support.”
“House Democrats will not be complicit in the Republican effort to hurt the American people,” Jeffries said.
If Republicans can muscle the bill through the House this week, then all eyes will be on Senate Democrats. Because of their 53-47 majority and because Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has vowed to oppose the measure over spending concerns, Republicans will need Democratic votes to overcome the 60-vote threshold in the upper chamber.
Democrats in the House and the Senate have blasted the continuing resolution 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 nondefense money. And they have demanded guardrails on Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s attempts to slash or freeze some spending.
“The president has been deciding how to spend the money any way 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 NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“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. Mark Warner, D-Va., slammed the House bill Monday afternoon, saying: “It’s awful. It’s awful. It’s awful.”
Senate Democrats largely offered critical reactions to the measure, saying it’s the Republican majority’s job to find enough votes to pass a bill to keep the government open.
“I think none of us wants to shut down the government. In a sense, the Republicans are shutting it down as we speak,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., pointing to mass layoffs of federal employees. “The litany of dismantling agencies by firing their employees is happening in real time, but it’s really on them to produce majorities for whatever it is they want to pass.”
Sen. Patty Murray, of Washington, the top Democrat on the 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 aren’t spelled out in the legislation. According to Murray, potential cuts to nondefense spending could include funding for combating 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 would give 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.”
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., called the bill a “grab bag of Republican priorities that’s maybe their way of trying to shut down the government.” He added that the GOP controls Congress and will “take responsibility if they send a bill over here that doesn’t have support” and leads to a shutdown.
“I don’t support the House bill,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who, like numerous other Democratic senators, called on Republicans to pass a short-term funding bill for a few weeks to buy enough time to write a full new appropriations package.
The bill would also restrict Washington, D.C.’s local funding levels to those of fiscal year 2024, resulting in a roughly $1 billion cut and potentially affecting police, firefighters and teachers.
Democrats are also under pressure from their base to more forcefully oppose Trump’s spending cuts.
At a protest outside the Capitol on Monday, Linda Gabris of Vienna, Virginia, said she wanted more congressional Democrats to join the demonstrations and called on them to shut down the government over Trump’s cuts.
“This is what I can do. This is all I can do right now, because Congress is doing nothing; they are doing nothing,” Gabris said at the protest, sponsored by the progressive group Indivisible. Congress should “not pass it. Not pass it.”
Asked whether lawmakers should shut down the government, Gabris replied, “Yes, yes,” saying Democrats “need to get out of your little computer room and off Facebook and come down and protest. … Show yourself; be here. You know, solidarity is what we need. Solidarity.”
