As Congress returned Tuesday after an extended August recess, Republican leaders expressed optimism they would be able to avoid a government shutdown.
But there’s still a host of issues to work out between both parties and both chambers. And Congress left for the summer break on a highly contentious note, and there’s little appetite among rank-and-file lawmakers for getting anything done on a bipartisan basis.
This year, Trump looms large. His attempts to claw back congressionally appropriated funds via rescissions, which his administration first did successfully in July, is playing into concerns from Democrats that working across the aisle is pointless if Republicans and Trump can cut back later on.
“We have to follow regular order,” Rep. Nydia Velázquez told NOTUS. “It just can’t be dictated by the White House, and the White House has to respect the will of the Congress. We hold the purse.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday afternoon that he’s “committed” to making bipartisan appropriations work, but he wants to hash it out in public — and took a dig at Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“Chuck’s used to having, you know, writing these bills behind closed doors in his office,” Thune said. “We’re running the Senate differently. We want this to be in the light of day. We think that these debates ought to be, you know, on the floor, in public, and if they want to follow through on some of their threats to shut down the government, it ought to be in the public eye.”
In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he’s keeping in touch with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries about getting funding bills across the finish line. The two had “a good conversation” in recent days, Johnson said.
Johnson added that he is “open” to a bipartisan appropriations process but that “the ball is in their court,” referring to the Democrats.
“Appropriations is always a bipartisan endeavor. It should be,” Johnson said. “But we’ve got to do it in a way that responsibly spends the taxpayers’ treasury, and Democrats have not had a long history of doing that. So if they’re reasonable and they want to come to the table, work together, we welcome them to do so.”
But Democrats are looking for any chance to push back against President Donald Trump, pointing to the reconciliation bill that made drastic cuts to social programs and the administration’s moves to cut congressionally appropriated funding.
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker told reporters Tuesday that he’s not going to vote for any Republican funding bills.
“I am not giving my vote away to Donald Trump on a budget that’s going to hurt people, on a budget that’s going to take away health care, on a budget that’s going to hurt families who are really struggling,” Booker said. “So I’m telling folks, this is a crossroads. I am standing and fighting against any kind of budget proposal that’s going to hurt Americans or hurt people in New Jersey.”
Some Democrats in the House were more open to passing a bipartisan bill — but added that they’re looking for a number of specific assurances from their Republican colleagues to strike a deal.
“They still have some time to come to the table. If they have the votes, well, God bless them, but if they don’t, they better come to the table,” Velázquez said, adding that restoring agency funding cut by the Trump administration is nonnegotiable for her support.
And Rep. Seth Magaziner said his redline is extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire.
“People’s health insurance premiums are going to skyrocket if the ACA subsidies aren’t allowed to continue, so that for me personally is a redline,” he told NOTUS.
Schumer and Jeffries, in a press release last week, urged Republican leadership to address the Medicaid cuts in the reconciliation bill if they want to bring Democrats to the table.
Efforts to do so might have support from a handful of Republicans, including Sen. Josh Hawley, who introduced a bill to roll back Medicaid cuts in the reconciliation bill shortly after voting for that bill.
Hawley told NOTUS on Tuesday that he’d like to see reconciliation’s $50 billion fund for rural hospitals expanded upon, potentially as a part of government funding negotiations.
“I think there’s a lot that we can do prospectively there,” Hawley said. “I mean, one great place to begin is to take the rural hospital fund, which the reconciliation bill created, and make it bigger, extend its life.”
When asked whether he’d be willing to partner with Democrats in making this a sticking point, Hawley grinned.
“Well, let’s see what they have in mind,” he said.
The partisan blame game for a shutdown, and erosion of bipartisan cooperation in general, have made the funding process a regular headache for Congress.
Last week, Trump announced another cancellation of funds, this time through a “pocket rescission,” which gives Congress a narrow window to act on the request to rescind funds before the fiscal year ends, effectively freezing the funds. Democrats immediately indicated that the pocket rescission is a bad omen for a shutdown.
A handful of Republicans, particularly those on appropriations committees who have been working on bipartisan funding bills for months, aren’t thrilled about the latest rescission request, either.
Sen. Susan Collins, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a statement, called the maneuver “an attempt to undermine the law.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a fellow swing-vote Republican, said Tuesday on X that the pocket rescission would “threaten the good bipartisan work that has been done” and “risk throwing the entire process into chaos.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, also an appropriator, suggested to reporters Tuesday that she supports rescissions as a part of the appropriations process.
“We do rescissions in our appropriations bills all the time,” she said. “So the appropriations route is my preferable route.”
Republicans insist they’re not the ones holding up the process.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville told reporters it’s “up to Democrats” whether there will be a shutdown.
“It’s gonna be hard to get them all done, but they’re playing keep-away,” Tuberville said. “So if they shut it down, it’s up to them.”
“The question’s really, are the Democrats gonna wanna actually negotiate, because ultimately it’s going to be negotiating in the White House as well,” Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart said.
Díaz-Balart said a short-term continuing resolution, which would extend the current government funding levels, is almost a certainty.
Besides the usual partisan mudslinging, whether the Senate and House can find an agreement on a top-line amount for the appropriations bills still to be passed is a big question, too. A short-term continuing resolution would stave off a shutdown while negotiations continue.
“There’s going to be a top-line number negotiated by the leadership, or leadership’s gonna have to give the appropriations chairs the ability to do that,” Díaz-Balart said of what comes next. “But we need a top line now. But we’re moving.”
Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, another appropriator, said the negotiations right now are about pulling together top-line funding numbers that both chambers can get behind, rather than conflict over rescissions alone. He also said a short-term CR is likely.
“I think it’s more just trying to get the House and the Senate to agree to numbers and work through the process,” Moolenaar said.