Can Congress Finally Avoid Stop-Gap Spending Plans?

As the House of Representatives and Senate haggle over budget reconciliation, they need to do something that may be even more difficult: ensuring the government does not shut down.

With all the hullabaloo about Congress trying to push President Donald Trump’s fiscal agenda through the budget reconciliation process, a key part of spending policy has gotten less attention. For the first time in years, the legislative branch is preparing an original spending bill. That means the appropriations committees in the House and Senate give a specific amount of money to the government for the entire upcoming fiscal year rather than fund it with a series of short-term continuing resolutions that extend the status quo, as was the case in the last Congress.

But the chambers need to agree to send something to Trump’s desk by March 14—in roughly two and a half weeks—to avert a government shutdown. That complicates things, considering that committee chairs have yet to agree on topline spending numbers. After that happens, it usually takes at least a month to craft the 12 bills that the chambers will vote on. As recently as last week, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins was sounding pessimistic about her negotiations with the other side of the aisle, saying talks seemed to be “at an impasse.” By Tuesday, however, she had changed her tune.

“The negotiations are going much better,” she told The Dispatch. “We are focused on trying to reach agreement on the numbers, and I think we are very close.”

Democrats have said their main concern is whether Trump will spend the money Congress allocates in the way the law provides, rather than impound the funds, something they have accused him of doing in cases such as his administration’s January funding freeze.

“We absolutely need an assurance that the funding that is appropriated by Congress is going to be spent by the administration the way Congress intends and directs,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. “That’s our authority in the U.S. Constitution, and the president needs to follow that.”

At a time when the administration’s layoffs and firings are already roiling the federal workforce and new polling suggests a majority of voters disapprove of Trump’s management of the federal government, avoiding a government shutdown is vital to Trump’s success in his second term.

If the funding lapses with Republicans in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, Democrats will have plenty of material with which to bash the administration, which they could couple with the attacks they have already levied against Elon Musk’s involvement in gutting federal agencies. Not to mention the fact that congressional Republicans will not be able to make progress on a budget reconciliation bill until the more immediate problem of funding the government is resolved. Despite the tough timeline, neither side is sounding as though a shutdown is inevitable, and Democrats involved in negotiations are at least saying publicly that they hope to meet the deadline.

“We are working very hard to try and get to an agreement—no one wants a shutdown—and I hope that’s the result,” Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told The Dispatch.

At the same time, they are still preparing for the prospect of a shutdown. Asked over the weekend by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether Democrats in the House would vote with Republicans if they are unable to pass a bill through their own conference—which happened multiple times last year—House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats would “cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Rep. Glenn Ivey, a Maryland Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Democrats would “follow Hakeem’s lead” in terms of strategy, but he stressed that they were still waiting for a proposal from their counterparts.

“I think we’re at the point where we have to kind of wait and see what the Republicans are going to bring, and we’ll have to decide then,” he told The Dispatch.

Although the two sides say publicly they are optimistic about reaching an agreement, they seem to be preparing to blame the other side in the event of a shutdown.

“The Democrats want us to spend more money,” Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told reporters. “They always want us to spend more money, and they want us to agree” to stop Trump “from reducing the waste and spending … and we’re not going to do that.”

Asked about the potential for Republicans to point to his party if Congress does not meet its deadline, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut noted the GOP’s governing trifecta.

“Republicans won the house, they won the Senate, they won the presidency,” he told reporters. “They’re in charge. You asked to govern—govern.”

Congress can avoid the blame game if the two parties reach an agreement on appropriations, likely leading to the package of bills easily passing the House and getting the 60 votes it needs in the Senate.

“I am hopeful,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, a Democrat who will likely face a competitive reelection battle in 2026, told The Dispatch. “I think it’s very important for us to go back to the appropriations process. We have 11 out of 12 bills that went through the committee in the Senate, and they went with overwhelming bipartisan support. I think there’s a lot of bipartisan support in the Senate.”

But Senate Majority Leader John Thune has acknowledged the possibility of Congress needing to resort to yet another continuing resolution to fund the government. Appropriations Committee member Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska made it clear that was something she and her fellow Republicans hoped to avoid, while also expressing anxiety over their ability to reach an agreement in time.

“I’m worried. I was worried when the March 14 date was set because we cannot continue with continuing resolutions,” she told The Dispatch. “We need to do our job. We need to be able to have individual appropriations bills, so hopefully we’ll get over the situation we’re in now and for the next fiscal year be able to get it done.”

Read more at The Dispatch

The Dispatch is a new digital media company providing engaged citizens with fact-based reporting and commentary, informed by conservative principles. Sign up for free.

EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel