Summary
- Congressional Republicans face challenges cutting
spending while avoiding government shutdown. - Passing all 12 appropriations bills before the
September 30 deadline remains unlikely. - House GOP aims for deep non-defense spending cuts;
Senate less willing. - Bipartisan cooperation needed due to Senate filibuster
and Democratic opposition. - Lawmakers may rely on short-term continuing resolution
to keep the government open.
Every time the fiscal year (FY) deadline of
September 30 draws closer, Republicans have aimed to pass 12 separate
appropriations bills, each of which funds a different area of the federal
government.
However, since 1996 — FY1997 — that has not
occurred, and the partisan climate in Washington has only grown more divisive.
The once-dominant appropriations committees in both chambers have virtually
disappeared due to recent legislation supported by Republicans.
“When’s the last time we got 12
appropriations bills actually done, and completed in a couple of weeks? It’s
almost impossible to do,”
Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., told Fox News Digital last week.
A stalemate between the two houses may arise
because the House of Representatives is more generally willing to follow the
Trump administration’s proposal to reduce $163 billion in non-defense
government expenditure than their Senate counterparts.
“It’s looking like it’s going to be higher
than what the president’s budget is. And that, I’m not a fan of,”
Rep.
Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., a member of the House Appropriations Committee, told Fox
News Digital last week.
Another committee Republican, Rep. Riley Moore,
R-W.Va., said, “I’m really proud of the work the committee has done so
far. I do feel like we’re gonna be able to get these bills done. The question
is, what’s the Senate going to do?”
The 60-vote filibuster barrier that most Senate
bills must pass further exacerbates tensions between the two sides of the US
Capitol.
Senate Democrats have threatened to oppose
President Donald Trump’s $9 billion rescission package after Senate Republicans
cleared it, despite the requirement that all spending measures be
bipartisan.
Although Senate Democrats “have signaled
that they don’t want one,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.,
stated that he would want to go with a regular appropriations procedure.
“The Democrats have been very clear,”
he said.
“They are already conferencing the idea of a government shutdown
— I don’t have any idea, no idea how that is helpful for them or to
anyone.”
In the past, Senate Majority Leader Chuck
Schumer, a Democrat from New York, has cautioned that if Republicans were able
to pass the rescissions package after excluding Democrats from the budget
reconciliation process, they may later struggle to garner enough bipartisan
support to pass spending bills while preventing a partial government
shutdown.
The Senate Agriculture, Rural Development, Food
and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriations subcommittee head,
Sen. John Hoeven, told Fox News Digital,
“what would you expect?”
if
Democrats intended to stop everything.
“By working with us, that’s how they
actually will get some of their priorities,”
the North Dakota Republican
said.
“But when they’re going to just block us, then why should their
priorities be included?”
According to a member of the House
Appropriations Committee who spoke to Fox News Digital under condition of
anonymity, Republican lawmakers are starting to consider the possibility of
passing a short-term continuing resolution (CR), which would extend the funding
levels from the previous fiscal year in order to keep the government operating.
“You could see a situation where you’re in
a short-term CR, and we’ll try to negotiate topline numbers and all that,”
that House lawmaker said.
It’s a situation that House Appropriations
Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., didn’t rule out to reporters early last
week – while agreeing with Senate Republicans’ concerns about Democrats failing
to work across the aisle.
“I’m always worried about a shutdown,
because I think the Democrats have a very hard time bargaining with Donald
Trump. I mean, that’s why we ended up in a CR,”
Cole said, referring to
the last round of government funding talks that resulted in a CR from March
through the end of FY2025.
“We offered them a much better deal than a
CR, and they couldn’t do it. So I hope this time they can, but the temperature
on the other side is very high, and Democratic voters are punishing their own
members for cooperating on things like keeping the government open.”
Although no shutdown has resulted from similar
standoffs in recent years, that would cause problems with conservative House
Freedom Caucus members, who have previously vehemently opposed CRs or
“omnibus” budget packages.
Republicans are facing extremely narrow margins
of only three votes in both the House and the Senate.
Last week, House Republicans passed their $832
billion defense appropriations measure, marking a significant win. Together
with the law financing Veterans’ Affairs and military construction, that
accounts for almost half of the discretionary budget that the White House asked
earlier this year.
However, before Congress returns from its August
recess in early September, it is not anticipated that they will have House-wide
votes on any of the ten remaining legislation.
The appropriations process and the expected
extension of government financing will be tested in the upcoming months as
Senate Republicans prepare to discuss their first spending measure on Tuesday,
which is for military construction and the VA.
Following the passage of the rescissions
package, Senate Appropriations Committee top Democrat Sen. Patty Murray stated
her desire for the committee to reconvene and maintain the bipartisan spirit of
appropriations.
“It is unfortunate that many members of
this body have voted to make that a whole lot harder,”
the Washington
state Democrat said.
One senior House GOP lawmaker who spoke with Fox
News Digital ultimately downplayed concerns of a shutdown, however.
“The factors of the Senate wanting more
money than the House, Democrats wanting more money than Republicans – those
have been in place for a generation. And most of the time, shutdowns don’t
happen,” that lawmaker said.
“It would seem to me that although the
Democrats are mad about Elon and Trump, and reconciliation, at some point, that
temperature’s going to fade and people are going to realize that a shutdown
doesn’t really serve our national interests.”
What are the key approaches of the Republican
strategy for cutting spending?
The Senate has already passed a bill that aims
to retract approximately $9 billion in previously approved federal funding,
primarily targeting foreign aid and public broadcasting (NPR and PBS) . This
aligns with President Donald Trump’s agenda to reduce what he views as
“wasteful spending” . The Trump administration has indicated that
more rescission proposals could follow if this initial attempt succeeds .
Broader Budget Cut Proposals House Republicans
have unveiled a budget plan that proposes $2 trillion in spending cuts over 10
years, with a goal of achieving at least $1.5 trillion in cuts . These proposed
cuts are expected to target social services, particularly Medicaid, as well as
a range of energy, climate, and environment programs .
