Congressional leaders are trying to de-escalate a standoff over the Sept. 30 government funding deadline, with both Republicans and Democrats signaling they’d be open to a 45-day or possibly longer “clean” continuing resolution that would not include substantial funding cuts.
Democrats are trying to keep the path open to a partisan deal to avoid a government shutdown by saying privately they are not going to draw a red line against President Trump’s $5 billion pocket rescission in the spending talks, preferring instead to let the courts handle Trump’s attempt to sidestep Congress by rescinding funding unilaterally.
If the matter were left entirely to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), the so-called four corners would likely reach a deal quickly on a clean short-term funding deal, lawmakers in both parties say.
But Trump will have “a seat at the table,” and he represents a wild card in the talks.
Some Republican senators say it’s possible that Trump or Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought could derail the talks with a demand that Democrats find unacceptable.
In contrast to six months ago, when some Senate Democrats including Schumer reluctantly voted for a House-GOP-drafted funding bill to avoid a shutdown, Democrats are now warning loudly that they will vote against any partisan continuing resolution (CR) the House sends them shortly before the Sept. 30 deadline.
“Schumer has come around to the viewpoint of telling Republicans that partisan CRs are dead on arrival,” said one Democratic senator, who requested anonymity to comment on internal Democratic caucus strategy.
In March, Schumer didn’t want to draw a hard line against the stopgap spending measure House Republicans drafted in the late winter without any Democratic input.
He worried that Republicans had too much political momentum coming out of the 2024 election and that a shutdown would give Trump and Elon Musk, then the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, too much power to slash federal agencies and furlough federal workers.
The lawmaker said Schumer was worried Democrats would get blamed for a shutdown in March but has since “come around” to taking a hard line against any partisan CR that comes from the House well in advance.
Thune and Johnson — as well as Senate conservatives — have gotten the message that Democrats will only accept a clean continuing resolution, without major policy riders or significant spending cuts, to keep the government open in October.
Thune and Johnson have both signaled they would be open to a straightforward extension of funding to allow for more time to negotiate a long-term deal on the 12 annual appropriations bills for fiscal 2026.
“My hope would be that whatever that CR looks like that it’s clean and that it enable us to buy some time to get a regular appropriations process done,” Thune told reporters.
“I still think the best way to fund the government is through the appropriations process, and I’m hoping that this year, unlike past years when the Democrats had the majority here, we actually will have an opportunity to put bills on the floor, have an amendment process that enables all members to have their voices heard, and then in a very constructive way take care of funding government the old fashioned way,” he explained.
Johnson told Punchbowl News in an interview that he doesn’t want a government shutdown. He said he is having “productive discussions” with Jeffries about reaching a deal by month’s end.
The tone GOP leaders are striking this month is much different than the more confrontational approach they took in March. At that time, the GOP drafted a long-term continuing resolution without Democratic input, passed it through the House on a largely party-line vote, and jammed the Senate shortly before the deadline.
Schumer and Jeffries say they are also open to a short-term funding stopgap — as long as it’s bipartisan — and aren’t pressing special demands, such as for Trump to pull back a pocket rescission to claw back $5 billion previously appropriated to the State Department and the now-defunct U.S. Agency for International Development.
“The bottom line is very simple. We Democrats want a bipartisan bill and we are pushing the Republicans very hard to do it,” Schumer said.
Schumer did not say that Democrats would block a funding bill if Trump doesn’t drop the pocket rescission.
“We need a bipartisan proposal where we have real input,” he said.
The Democratic senator who requested anonymity to discuss party strategy said Democrats will let the courts respond to the pocket rescission, which the Government Accountability Office says is unlawful.
“The idea will be a 45-day CR passed, with the goal of getting two more of the big appropriations bills done, Defense and Health and Human Services. Then most of government is covered,” the senator said.
The lawmaker said Trump’s pocket rescission is a clear violation of Congress’s power of the purse but predicted that Democrats won’t force a shutdown to get Trump to back down.
“Because it’s under judicial review and we may win in the courts, it hasn’t ripened into the top-tier of battles,” the source said.
Both Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the ranking member on Appropriations, want to pass the regular appropriations bills funding military construction, veterans’ affairs, agriculture and the legislative branch as part of the stopgap funding measure that needs to pass this month.
The Senate passed three spending bills covering those areas before the August recess.
Conservative Republicans also are taking a more conciliatory approach heading into the fall.
They say they are open to advancing a stopgap funding measure that keeps funding levels steady and are not insisting on spending cuts, as they did earlier this year.
The spending measure that Congress passed in March cut nondefense funding by $7 billion compared to a fiscal 2024 agreement that President Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) struck in what became the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
It also cut nondefense funding by $15 billion relative to the fiscal 2025 agreement between Biden and McCarthy.
Conservatives now acknowledge the House won’t be able to jam Senate Democrats with spending cuts this month.
“I don’t know that’s going to be realistic to do that,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a prominent fiscal hawk, said when asked if he would press for spending cuts in a continuing resolution.
Instead, conservatives are pushing for a long-term continuing resolution that freezes funding levels well into 2026.
He said a yearlong resolution that freezes funding levels would be preferable to a year-end omnibus that is loaded with earmarks and pet projects.
“I do not want to see a big old omnibus spending bill where they tack all kinds of other things on it as well. I’d rather keep this clean and simple,” he said.
