Senate Republicans say President Trump has made it clear that he does not desire a authorities shutdown, and so they’re urging Home GOP lawmakers to tone down their strategy to the Sept. 30 funding deadline.
Home Republicans jammed Senate Democrats in March with a partisan funding invoice, which Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) reluctantly voted for to keep away from a shutdown.
However the political dynamics are totally different now. Schumer is beneath heavy strain to struggle more durable towards Trump and his MAGA-allies, heightening the possibility of a shutdown if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) tries to make use of the identical playbook.
“I know that our side won’t want a shutdown, Trump hates that and rightly so,” stated a Republican senator, who requested anonymity to debate conversations with the White Home.
The senator stated “the fate of the approps bills” to fund the federal government in fiscal yr 2026 would be the focus of the GOP convention earlier than it leaves for a four-week August recess.
A second Republican senator who requested anonymity stated that Trump, who dined with Senate Republicans on the White Home lately to rejoice the passage of the One Massive, Stunning Invoice Act, has made it clear to his allies on Capitol Hill that he needs to keep away from a shutdown within the fall.
The president is targeted on touchdown commerce offers and touting the accomplishments included within the huge tax and spending bundle Congress handed earlier than July 4.
It is a huge purpose why Senate Republicans have sought widespread floor with Democrats on the annual appropriations payments, hoping to place behind them the bruising partisan battles over the reconciliation invoice and a measure that clawed again $9 billion in PBS, NPR and world help funding.
The senator stated that increased spending ranges within the Senate appropriations payments provide a “better path” to avoiding a authorities shutdown within the fall as a result of they’re much less more likely to provoke opposition from Democrats.
The Senate’s Inside and Surroundings appropriations invoice for 2026, for instance, supplies $41.45 billion in complete funding, together with $3.27 billion for the Nationwide Park Service and $6.17 billion for the Forest Service.
It handed out of committee with overwhelming bipartisan assist, 26 to 2.
The Home Inside, Surroundings and Associated Companies invoice, by comparability, supplies $38 billion in funding, which is $2.9 billion under the extent enacted in 2025. It additionally consists of 72 controversial coverage riders that will prohibit the issuance of guidelines to guard sage grouse, prohibit the implementation of an up to date public lands rule and dictate the timing of offshore and onshore fossil-fuel extraction leases.
The Home measure handed out of committee on a partisan 33-28 vote.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the rating member on the Home Appropriations Committee, complained final week that bipartisanship has been “thwarted” on the Home aspect.
“It’s not a negotiation,” he stated, arguing that the laws being drafted by Republican Home Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (Okla.) “does not look to being bipartisan in a way that both Democrats and Republicans can come together.”
Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-S.D.) says that Senate Republicans wish to keep away from a last-minutes standoff with Democrats over funding that would threaten a shutdown.
The Senate GOP chief warned in an interview with the Ruthless Podcast that Schumer is unlikely to swallow a partisan funding deal despatched over from the Home shortly earlier than the Sept. 30 deadline, noting that the Democratic chief “got just blown up” for voting for the partisan year-long funding invoice the Home handed in March.
“I think [Democrats are] going to be under an enormous amount of pressure come fall, which is why … we need to do everything we can – House Republicans, Senate Republicans, President Trump and his team – to … set it up for success, to keep the government up and funded,” Thune stated.
“And then … Chuck Schumer … what’s he going to do? Is he going to bow to the Democratic base, or do the responsible thing and keep the government open? That’s the decision,” he added.
A Democratic senator who requested anonymity to touch upon discussions throughout the Democratic caucus stated that Schumer is coming beneath heavy strain from liberal colleagues to insist on a bipartisan funding stopgap. They usually’re urging him to reject any partisan funding measure akin to what the Home jammed the Senate with in March.
“We all want to pursue a bipartisan, bicameral appropriations process. That’s how it’s always been done successfully and we believe that should happen. However, the Republicans are making it extremely difficult to do that,” Schumer advised reporters after assembly with Home Democratic Chief Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) final week to debate technique.
Requested what he would do if the Home despatched one other partisan persevering with decision to the Senate shortly earlier than the funding deadline, Schumer stated: “We’re for a bipartisan, bicameral bill. That’s what’s always been done. The onus is on the Republicans to make that happen.”
Senate Republicans have heard that message loud and clear and so they wish to keep away from sticking Trump with a shutdown within the fall.
A component of the Senate Republican technique is to go a number of of the common appropriations payments for fiscal yr 2026 earlier than the tip of September to advertise a way of optimism that Republicans and Democrats can work collectively to fund the federal government.
GOP senators hope that, in flip, would scale back the temptation for the Home to easily ship to the Senate a stopgap funding measure that cuts deeply into Democratic priorities, as Johnson did in March, and dare Schumer to close down the federal government.
By passing just a few spending payments this week or in early September, Senate negotiators could be in a greater place to insist that Home GOP leaders meet them midway.
The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday, 90 to eight, to proceed with its model of the navy development and Division of Veterans Affairs Appropriations payments.
Thune is making an attempt to connect to that measure a invoice funding the Division of Agriculture and the Meals and Drug Administration and one other funding the departments of Commerce and Justice, science packages and the Nationwide Aeronautics and House Administration.
Thune tried to connect the legislative department appropriations invoice to the bundle however Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) objected, insisting on the measure getting a stand-alone vote.
The Senate will resume voting on nominees Monday whereas Thune makes an attempt to get all 99 different senators to log out on a time settlement for increasing the appropriations bundle past navy development and Veterans Affairs.
“We want to get as many bills considered in this tranche as possible,” Thune advised reporters final week.
