House Democratic leaders are actively whipping against the Republicans’ short-term spending bill, bashing the plan as a threat to military readiness while warning that GOP leaders are inching closer to a government shutdown.
Emerging from a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Caucus in the Capitol basement, party leaders noted that the Republicans’ six-month funding bill, which is slated for a House vote Wednesday, has no chance of being considered in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where even some Republicans oppose the package.
“Republicans are trying to drive us into a government shutdown that will hurt everyday Americans, because they want to jam Trump’s Project 2025 agenda down the throats of the American people. That’s what this is all about,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters.
Jeffries stopped short of saying House Democrats would be unanimous in their opposition to the spending package, but he emphasized the bill has no chance of passing the Senate, even if it does clear the House, and he encouraged GOP leaders to start working on legislation that can become law.
“The bill is going nowhere,” he said.
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who served for decades as the second-ranking House Democrat, also predicted an imminent failure.
“It’s a bad idea,” he said. “It’s not going to pass. It’s a waste of time.”
Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the Democratic whip, said leaders are early in the process of urging Democrats to oppose the package. Earlier in the year, a handful of centrist Democrats had supported a Republican bill, known as the SAVE Act, which aims to prevent non-citizens from voting, and GOP leaders have attached the proposal to the larger spending bill, raising questions about whether the moderate Democrats would buck leadership and support the bill.
“We are whipping against the bill, we have just begun the process,” Clark said. “But I think the Republican conference, once again, is looking at putting up a bill their own conference doesn’t support — which is what happens when you put up a bill that cuts our national security and defense funding, cuts veterans benefits, and makes it difficult on seniors to access Social Security.”
The spending debate is just the latest challenge facing Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who is balancing delicate efforts to prevent a government shutdown this month, expand the Republicans’ majority in November’s elections, and keep his spot at the top of the GOP next year in the face of conservatives upset with his leadership style.
The Republicans’ continuing resolution, or CR, aims to do that by extending government funding until March 28 — a six-month window demanded by conservatives — while attaching the election integrity proposal also favored by the right.
The legislation, however, faces fierce headwinds in the House after a number of conservatives came out against it on Monday, citing top-level spending levels they deem too high. Those critics were joined by a number of defense hawks, who maintain that six months is too long for the Pentagon to persevere without a hike in funding.
That view has been bolstered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who sent a letter to lawmakers over the weekend warning that keeping defense funding at current 2024 levels, rather than shifting to increases under a 2025 budget, “ties our hands behind our back while expecting us to be agile and to accelerate progress.”
The GOP opposition suggests the CR would fail on the floor on Wednesday, even if a handful of Democrats supported it. Johnson, however, is charging forward, vowing Tuesday that he has no intention of shifting to a Plan B.
“I am resolved to that,” he told reporters in the Capitol. “We’re not looking at any other alternative or any other step, I think it’s the right thing to do.”
How the debate is ultimately resolved remains unclear.
With Democrats controlling both the White House and Senate, no government shutdown can be averted without bipartisan support. Yet Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Republicans have not reached out to her in search of a compromise — a process that frequently involves a so-called “four corners” negotiation featuring bipartisan leaders in both chambers.
“This is one corner making this determination,” DeLauro said.