Morning mild hits the U.S. Capitol hours forward of a press convention to talk about the Epstein Files Transparency invoice, directing the discharge of the remaining recordsdata associated to the investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 3, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Congressional lawmakers are already buying and selling blame over the looming government shutdown, foreshadowing what’s going to seemingly be a bitter partisan dispute over the following a number of weeks, as funding hangs within the stability.
Lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill this week as the specter of a shutdown on the finish of the month intensified, and the acquainted partisan fault traces reappeared.
“The House Republicans are committed to keeping the government, and unfortunately, it seems like not all Democrats agree with that, and they’re beginning to apply their government to shut down pressure,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., instructed reporters on Wednesday.
“If the government shuts down, it’ll be because congressional Democrats rejected common sense solutions to fund the government,” he mentioned.
Government funding is about to expire in lower than 4 weeks, and lawmakers are divided over how to preserve the government afloat, even on a short-term foundation.
They will seemingly take into account a stopgap measure to preserve funding steady at federal companies, however even that might face hurdles within the Republicans’ razor-thin convention.
To cross a stopgap measure within the Senate earlier than Sept. 30, the date that funding is about to expire, GOP leaders will want Democratic assist to clear the chamber’s 60-vote threshold.
But that may seemingly be tough, as Democrats— keen to put the bulk occasion on protection because the 2026 midterm elections close to — seem keen to maintain the road and spar with their Republican counterparts over marquee items of President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., voted with Republicans in March to avert a shutdown, a call that drew robust backlash from his occasion. Schumer seemingly needs to avoid that this time round.
Like Johnson, the senior senator from New York has tried to put the onus for stopping a government shutdown on his colleagues within the different occasion.
“The only way to avoid a shutdown is to work in a bipartisan way, with a bill that can get both Republican and Democratic votes in the Senate,” he wrote in a letter to his colleagues on Tuesday.
“However, as we near the funding deadline, Republicans are once again threatening to go-at-it-alone – heading our country towards a shutdown,” he mentioned.
The almost definitely route forward is for lawmakers to cross a sequence of short-term funding payments, or persevering with resolutions, to assist preserve federal companies funded for the following a number of months.
If lawmakers do not go the CR route, they would wish to debate and cross a dozen full-year spending payments by the top of the month, a near-impossible feat.
The White House has steered that it backs a so referred to as “clean CR,” which might proceed funding at present charges and purchase time for lawmakers on Capitol Hill to hammer out a deal earlier than the top of the 12 months, in accordance to Punchbowl News.
Trump has beforehand shown a willingness to shut down the government so as to avoid having to agree to concessions in negotiations.
But now that his “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act” has been signed into legislation, Trump is displaying extra receptiveness to a short-term measure.
Democrats, nevertheless, are lifeless set on reversing the deep cuts to Medicaid that had been included in Trump’s package deal. And they need this reversal in change for giving Republicans the wanted votes to avoid the government shutdown.
This places GOP management in a tough scenario, the place it wants to attain a deal with out giving the impression that Republicans are reducing into Trump’s marquee home package deal.
“If Republicans want Democrats to provide votes to fund the Trump administration, they can start by restoring the health care that they ripped away to finance more tax handouts for billionaires,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote final week on X, foreshadowing the important thing Democratic demand in any negotiations.
The White House, which has hailed the coverage package deal as a triumph and a defining function of Trump’s second time period, is unlikely to look kindly on a deal that chips away on the the O.B.B.B.
Trump additional difficult potential negotiations final week, when he and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought introduced a plan to claw again virtually $5 billion in international help funding that Congress had already accepted, utilizing a uncommon legislative car generally known as a rescission package.
Democrats and even some Republicans had been fast to criticize the announcement, with some saying that it’s unlawful. Critics additionally mentioned that the eleventh hour change will additional complicate efforts to attain a deal that averts a shutdown.
“The fact is, advancing the final appropriations bills and avoiding a government shutdown will require a great deal of hard work and collaboration when Congress resumes session next week,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, wrote on X.
“These unilateral actions by OMB only threaten the good bipartisan work that has been done in committee and on the floor, and risk throwing the entire process into chaos,” she mentioned.
— CNBC’s Emily Wilkins contributed reporting