Shutdown

Capitol agenda: Johnson’s shutdown dare for Schumer

The speaker is hoping to clear a spending patch through the House on Tuesday and then send House lawmakers home.

By Lisa Kashinsky and Mia McCarthy

Mike Johnson to Chuck Schumer on government funding: Your move.

House Republicans are pushing a not-so-clean spending patch through September that would add billions of dollars for deportations, veterans’ health care and the military — and cut $13 billion in funding for non-defense programs. The speaker is planning to put the stopgap, known as a continuing resolution or a CR, on the floor Tuesday, and then send members home for recess before the Senate can send back any changes.

Johnson is hoping to get the CR through the House without relying on Democratic votes (House Democratic leaders reaffirmed Saturday that they’re a “no”). President Donald Trump is publicly pushing GOP lawmakers to fall in line, but Johnson’s still got a few Republican holdouts. Rep. Thomas Massie is a no. And we’re keeping an eye on Reps. Tony Gonzales, who said Sunday on CNN that he’ll make a “game-time decision;” Brian Fitzpatrick, who told CBS he’s undecided; and Cory Mills, who is also on the fence.

But the spending patch can’t get through the Senate without the help of at least eight Democrats, given expected opposition from GOP Sen. Rand Paul. And that’s putting Schumer in a bind.

The Senate minority leader and his House counterpart are both under pressure from within their party to do more to stop Trump and Elon Musk’s unilateral cuts to federal programs. Hakeem Jeffries’ caucus can likely oppose the spending patch en masse without prompting a shutdown, but Schumer doesn’t have the same cover. Senate Democrats will have to decide whether they’ll push back on Trump and force a shutdown, or stand down to keep the government running. Johnson’s already trying to cast any lapse in funding as a “Chuck Schumer shutdown.”

Some Senate Democrats seemed open last week to supporting a clean CR. But Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on Senate Appropriations, slammed House Republicans’ weekend proposal as a “slush fund” that would give Trump and Musk “more power over federal spending.” She continued to call for a shorter spending patch to give appropriators time to finish the full funding bills — an outcome also favored by Murray's GOP counterpart, Sen. Susan Collins.

And swing-state Sen. Elissa Slotkin told NBC News she’d “withhold” her vote unless she gets “assurances that whatever we pass … is going to ensure that the money is spent the way Congress intends.”