Congressional negotiators are racing to reach a government funding agreement by a March 14 deadline to avert a shutdown, as several key factors strain bipartisan talks.
The government has been operating on stopgap funding measures and fiscal 2024 spending levels since last September. President Donald Trump has suggested that Congress extend the deadline again through this September, which would mark the first-ever yearlong extension, known as a continuing resolution.
“As usual, Sleepy Joe Biden left us a total MESS. The Budget from last YEAR is still not done,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “We are working very hard with the House and Senate to pass a clean, temporary government funding Bill (‘CR’) to the end of September. Let’s get it done!”
But talks appeared to dissolve on Friday, with the top Democrats on the Senate and House Appropriations Committees, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), accusing Republicans of “walking away from bipartisan negotiations to fund the government and raising the risk of a shutdown in so doing.”
“Republican leadership’s plan to pass a full-year continuing resolution with Musk’s devastating ‘DOGE cuts’ would give Trump new flexibility to spend funding as he sees fit,” Murray and DeLauro said in a statement. “While Elon Musk has been calling for a shutdown, Democrats have been working to pass bills that make sure Congress decides whether our schools or hospitals get funding — not Trump or Musk.”
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which is dismantling government agencies and enacting widespread layoffs in the federal workforce, is complicating efforts to reach a bipartisan deal.
Republicans want to codify into law DOGE’s cuts, something Democrats oppose. Despite their House and Senate majorities, Republicans will require the support of at least seven Senate Democrats to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Democrats want language to require Trump to spend the money appropriated by Congress, something some question the value of when they say Trump is already flouting the law by unilaterally shuttering the United States Agency for International Development.
“We are asking for our Republican colleagues to assure us and to give us the ability to know when we pass bills they are going to be followed by this White House,” Murray told reporters prior to her Friday statement.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME), before an apparent breakdown in talks, mirrored Murray’s position that another short-term funding patch would give them the time needed to reach a full-year budget agreement.
“Keep in mind, defense has never had a yearlong CR, and it is not a good approach,” Collins said.
Trump’s desire for a “clean” CR would mean funding the very jobs and agencies his administration has slashed, raising questions for Republican leaders on the Hill over how to move forward.
“I don’t know the answer to that, but I think you know where the administration is on that issue,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said.
The White House has also provided lawmakers with a list of add-on expenditures it wants to be funded.
“My guess is that the CR is probably going to be a vehicle to do pretty basic things, and the anomalies — we’ve received some requests from the White House … we’re reviewing those right now,” Thune added.
Democrats say any sort of shutdown would be solely at the hands of a Republican-controlled Washington. But Democrats are also fractured, with some threatening a shutdown as leverage against Trump as they demand language to require how the president spends the money approved by Congress. Republicans have rebuffed those efforts, saying it would tie Trump’s hands and abilities to overhaul the federal government.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has tried to tamp down shutdown calls from within his party, and others say the last thing federal workers already on edge would need is to miss paychecks.
TRACKING WHAT DOGE IS DOING ACROSS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
“I don’t do anything out of some kind of desperation,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said. “Shutting the government down in order to make it better or to protect it — that’s just not a trade-off I’m willing to vote for.”
Murray, in remarks to reporters at the Capitol before she said negotiations dissolved, cited Musk as the “only person calling for a shutdown.”
