House Republicans on Saturday unveiled a six-month stopgap government funding plan, that seeks cuts to nondefense programs while boosting funding for defense.
The bill’s rollout kicks off a crucial stretch for GOP leadership to lock down support ahead of Friday’s shutdown deadline with a Trump-backed strategy that has drawn the ire of Democrats.
The plan seeks to keep the government funded through September. While it is considered a continuing resolution (CR), Republicans say its funding levels in the 99-page bill are below those previously set as part of a bipartisan funding deal last year, as leadership has faced growing pressure from its right flank to drive a harder line on curbing government spending.
Will Medicaid face cuts? How Americans could be affected
Republicans say the plan would allow for moderate increases to defense funding to the tune of about $6 billion above fiscal year 2024 levels, though below levels previously agreed to for fiscal year 2025 under a bipartisan spending-limits deal struck in 2023. The bill also seeks to allow the Defense Department flexibility to start new programs and move funds around, as defense hawks have raised concerns about the military being hamstrung by a six-month funding patch without major changes.
The bill will also fund already-authorized pay increases for junior enlisted military personnel.
Republicans say the stopgap measure would increase funding for veterans healthcare and housing, and funds the WIC program. But overall funding for non-defense programs would decrease by about $13 billion below fiscal year 2024 levels. Republicans say the bill would also reflects a request to rescind IRS funding.
House GOP leadership staff said ahead of the release that the bill was crafted in close coordination with the White House. GOP hardliners, who have long opposed CRs, have signaled they are open to supporting the Trump-backed strategy.
Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Singing Into Irrelevancy
“The House and Senate have put together, under the circumstances, a very good funding Bill (‘CR’)! All Republicans should vote (Please!) YES next week.” Trump posted on Truth Social after the bill’s release.
“We have to remain UNITED — NO DISSENT — Fight for another day when the timing is right. VERY IMPORTANT. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he said.
Democrats have come out in sharp opposition to the strategy, however.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, voiced strong criticism of the funding plan on Saturday, dubbing the measure as a “power grab for the White House and further allows unchecked billionaire Elon Musk and President Trump to steal from the American people.”
“Reading the CR bill text now,” she wrote on the social platform X. “Republicans are zeroing out the Toxic Exposures Fund (to care for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances) on October 1. They cut $23 billion from their own bill they passed last year. You can’t make this stuff up.”
Trump tariffs already costing border money, jobs
Government programs have been running on stopgaps since last October, the start of fiscal year 2025. But Democratic negotiators raised a list of concerns over the potential consequences that a CR through the end of the fiscal year could pose to defense programs and military effectiveness, health care costs, pay reforms for wildland firefighters, veterans services and food assistance programs.
At the same time, their Republican counterparts have sought to pin blame on Democrats over the stopgap, citing their push for assurances that the administration will spend the money as directed – which GOP leaders have panned as a nonstarter.
In the last Congress, Democratic support was key for GOP leadership to pass funding measures in the House, due to the Republicans’ slim majority. And given that the House GOP’s control has only narrowed in the current Congress, Republican leadership is taking a risk in pressing on with a strategy panned by Democrats as a go-it-alone approach that undercuts a bipartisan spending-limits deal struck in 2023.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said this week that Republicans are on their own to find the votes to pass the funding bill.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters earlier this week that he thinks Republicans will be able to “pass it along party lines,” but he added that he believes “every Democrat” should vote for the legislation.
Al Green censure highlights increased appetite for retribution in House
But GOP leadership will need near unanimity in their conference to pass the bill if all Democrats vote “no.” And a small number of hardline conservatives signaled on Thursday that they still weren’t sold on the strategy, which some Republicans have griped would lock in Biden’s funding priorities.
“I’m ruminating on it,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) told reporters on Thursday when asked how he would vote if a stopgap running through September was brought to the floor.
“I talked to the president about it,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) also said Thursday, after noting he hasn’t yet said he “was on board” with the plan. “I just got some questions. Is it truly going to be clean? Is appropriations going to add a bunch of amendments for the Pentagon?”
Some hardline conservatives had warned ahead of the release that their support for the stopgap plan could be in jeopardy depending on the price tag, while pressing for offsets for any potential add-ons, including in areas like defense.
At the same time, defense hawks have sounded the alarm over how defense programs would fare under the plan in recent weeks.
“The costs of deterring war pale in comparison to the costs of fighting one. If Congress is unwilling to make deterrent investments today, then discussions about urgency of looming threats — particularly the ‘pacing threat’ of China — carries little weight,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) wrote in an op-ed published by The Washington Post days back.
House Republicans are expected to take swift action on the legislation, eyeing a floor vote on the measure as soon as Tuesday.
Updated at 2:02 p.m.
