With nine days to go before yet another government shutdown, President Trump has encouraged Republicans to buy time “to work on our Agenda” with another Continuing Resolution (CR) -aka kicking the can again.
“Government funding runs out next week, and Democrats are threatening to shut down the Government – But I am working with the GREAT House Republicans on a Continuing Resolution to fund the Government until September to give us some needed time to work on our Agenda,” Trump posted on Truth Social, adding that doing so would allow for the administration to “cut Taxes and Spending in Reconciliation, all while effectively FREEZING Spending this year.”
To that end, House Speaker Mike Johnson has proposed a “clean” stopgap funding bill that would maintain current federal spending levels through September 30.
That said, Republicans will have to do this without support for Democrats – which means that it all comes down to whether Johnson can gain the support of all Republicans given the razor-thin Republican majority in the House – before the Senate weighs in.
Most of the House Freedom Caucus, which opposes the temporary funding measures, met with Trump at the White House Wednesday to discuss the funding plan, which could receive a vote as early as next week. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) said following the meeting that they’re ready to move forward with the CR, however other caucus members said they would need to see the text first.
“Look, we haven’t seen the final form of the CR,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), adding “In concept, the president has said he needs this for his agenda. We support the president’s agenda.”
More via Politico:
One catch: There are a whole lot of House Republicans who have never voted for a CR before, and getting them to play along this time is crucial. Because of the anger over Trump’s slashing of the federal bureaucracy, Democrats who usually put those stopgaps over the finish line probably won’t be on board this time.
So it fell to Trump himself to make the sale to the House’s fiscal hawks at the White House on Wednesday, and he seemed to make some progress. Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison said he’s now open to supporting a CR. And two key Freedom Caucus members — Texas Rep. Chip Roy (Texas) and Chair Andy Harris (Md.)— told reporters other holdouts will eventually get on board.
Massie Blocks Path
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) may be the fly in the ointment, however, after say he’ll “vote against a clean CR that funds everything in 2025 at 2024 levels,” because (among other things) – Johnson “isn’t following the provision in law that would have cut everything by 1% if the CR extended past April. 2,” and that the government “should not fund the waste, fraud, and abuse that Doge has found.”
I’ll vote against a clean CR that funds everything in 2025 at 2024 levels because:
1. @SpeakerJohnson isn’t following the provision in law that would have cut everything by 1% if the CR extended past April.
2. We should not fund the waste, fraud, and abuse that Doge has found.…
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 4, 2025
In comments to the press, Johnson said on Tuesday that he hopes to release the text of the CR by the end of the week.
In short, without support from Democrats, House Republicans will need to rally their entire conference in order to approve the stopgap measure.
During the last funding fight in December, Johnson pushed for an extension until March so that Republicans could come up with an agreement on new spending bills with Trump in office, before the March 14 deadline.
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