House Democratic leaders put the blame on Republicans if the government enters a shutdown later this week, accusing GOP leaders of unilaterally scrapping a bipartisan agreement to appease far-right conservatives and their incoming commander in chief.
In a brief statement on Wednesday evening, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) faulted House Republicans for walking back a deal that was negotiated between both parties in the House and Senate and, as a result, “hurt everyday Americans all across this country.” Jeffries’s comments come after House leaders canceled plans to vote on Wednesday on a continuing resolution to extend current funding levels through mid-March amid growing opposition in the GOP conference.
Now, Jeffries says, if a spending package can’t make it through the House in time to avert a shutdown, the blame lies with Republicans.
“House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt everyday Americans all across this country,” Jeffries said. “House Republicans will now own any harm that is visited upon the American people that results from a government shutdown or worse. An agreement is an agreement.”
The White House later echoed that sentiment in a statement calling on Republicans to abide by the terms of the compromise.
“A deal is a deal. Republicans should keep their word,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday night.
House Republicans reversed course on Wednesday afternoon after failing to whip enough GOP support on the latest CR text, which would extend current spending levels until March 14 and include an additional $110.4 billion in disaster aid and economic assistance for farmers.
Pressure grew on Johnson early Wednesday to scrap the bill after prominent conservative figures such as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy came out against the bill, calling it counterproductive to the GOP’s plans to cut spending.
However, the final nail in the coffin may have been when President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance publicly opposed the bill.
Instead, the pair said the House GOP should move forward with a clean CR and drop the additional provisions that were negotiated with Democrats. Additionally, Trump suggested lawmakers should include a debt ceiling lift — something that could take days, if not weeks, of negotiations.
“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration?” Trump and Vance said in a joint statement. “Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.”
GOP leaders met behind closed doors Wednesday to hash out a new spending package that would omit any provisions that don’t have to do with the fiscal 2025 budget, sparking outrage among Democrats who negotiated certain measures in exchange for the clean CR.
Now top Democrats are saying if those measures aren’t included, they have no obligation to provide Johnson with their votes to ensure a CR gets through the lower chamber.
“You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow,” Jeffries said in a statement.
Other Democrats echoed similar statements, including Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern (D-MA), who said, “Johnson’s got to grow a spine.”
Had Johnson moved forward with the current CR proposal, he likely would have put it on the floor under suspension of rules, meaning it would require a two-thirds majority to pass. The speaker was largely banking on Democratic support, earned from unrelated measures in the continuing resolution, to get the funding package across the finish line.
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But if Johnson moves forward with a clean CR instead, he could likely push it through the Rules Committee and only require a simple majority on the floor. However, the speaker must still contend with his historically slim majority which allows little room for error — and a number of Republicans who maintain they’ll never vote for a CR regardless of what’s in it.
Lawmakers have until midnight on Friday to pass some sort of spending agreement; otherwise, federal funding is scheduled to lapse for a slew of government agencies. That gives Congress just two working days to craft an agreement and get it through both chambers before the deadline hits.
