Republicans are rushing to stop the feat they couldn't do since they took home in 2023. Avoid government closures without leaning towards democratic support.
On Saturday, House GOP leadership announced a short-term funding bill to avoid yet another looming shutdown in the middle of Friday's midnight and maintain lights until September. But there are some Republican holdouts that could derail the plan.
“There are still a few people who don't like it,” Senator Chip Roy (R-Texas) told Fox & Friends on Sunday. “Democrats know that Americans can get a glimpse under the hood, so they want to turn off the lights to stop Elon and Doge.”
In the past, Roy was one of the frequent hardliners who defeated GOP leadership with a short-term government fundraising patch also known as the Continuing Resolution or CRS.
Due to unfair circumstances, GOP leadership has had to repeatedly shake up enough Dems on its side to pass stop gap measures over the past two years.
But this time Roy is on board in fear that Democrats will use the GOP inside to draw important concessions.
Republicans currently have 218 House seats for 214 Democrats. That means the Gopers can only afford to lose one vote if they have all the lawmakers. If they lose two votes to DEMS, it will be a tie with no consequences.
President Trump threw all the weight behind the GOP plan to avoid the closure. So far, it is not clear how many holdouts there have been.
so far, Most vocal critics On the proposal, Rep. Thomas Massey (R-Ky.) is a hard-fledged fiscal hawk that roams around the Capitol building with a US national debt watch to his lapel.
However, many other traditional hardlines seem surprisingly suitable for planning. For example, MP Victoria Spartz (R-ind.) has Signaled support. Sources previously posted that Spartz was their last major hug during a difficult poll on the blueprint for the Trump Agenda package last month.
Massey was the only vote against the blueprint, and another Republican vote would have fought it.
Hardliners are coming in, eager to avoid a situation where GOP leadership is forced to make big concessions to the Democrats to prevent the closure.
It is a 99-page CR that supports hardliners, primarily keeping government spending static.
A GOP Leadership aide told reporters that the level of non-defensive discretionary spending is below $13 billion from the previous year under the plan.
Defence spending will also increase by $6 billion, with immigration and customs enforcement agencies receiving nearly $10 billion in boost compared to 2024.
“Now we have the opportunity to freeze spending at the current level. There's no omnibus, no big bloated bill,” Roy said. “It's a new world, a new dynamic, I think we can work with the president to do this while Democrats want to close.”
Leadership argues that CR is needed to give Congress and the Trump administration time to codify Doge Cuts during the 2026 appropriation budget process, which has an October 1 deadline.
“The goal here is to spend less money,” another senior Republican aide told reporters.
With each new accounting year beginning October 1, Congress is tasked with funding the federal government through 12 spending bills, usually being wagered on the omnibus bill.
This year, Congress has failed to pass 12 bills and instead relies on CRS, which effectively places government funds on Autopilot. If this latest CR pass, Congress will spend the year without funding the government in traditional ways.
Democrats have recently helped Republicans fund CR in December during the turbulent process. They were peeked out by the GOP, who had withdrawn their previous deal amid pressure from the high-tech baron Elon Musk, but ultimatetey has reached an agreement on a one-sided CR.
“The Republicans have decided to introduce a continuing resolution from partisans that threaten to cut healthcare, nutrition assistance and veteran benefits by the end of the current fiscal year,” minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), told a colleague in a letter last week.
“That's not acceptable.”
According to a GOP aide, the first step to moving forward with CR will be in the House Rules Committee on Monday.
After Congress addresses the government closure issue, Republicans will focus on creating a Trump marquee legislative agenda package to cut taxes, strengthen border security, spin the energy supply and strengthen national defense.
That effort is expected to be dominated by additional bertending measures in the federal budget. Congress should also address the debt cap, which is projected to be a problem in June.
Additional Reports by Josh Christenson
