Republican senators expect Republicans to win the upcoming November elections, and some of their usual opponents are prepared to pass a stopgap spending bill in September and push back the budget until 2025, a year when Republicans could have a majority and the White House could have a say in crafting the budget.
“I believe the continuing resolution that we should be considering after Sept. 30, when the current spending bill runs out of steam, is a spending bill that will carry us through 2025, probably March or April of 2025,” Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.
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Senators Lee and Marshall have voiced support for a stopgap spending bill that would extend through 2025, allowing Republicans to craft legislation if they win the November election. (Getty Images)
The Utah Republican has been a vocal critic of the continuing cycle of spending resolutions and omnibus bills that has been used so often in recent years to pass crucial annual spending bills. He said such a move would help avoid a “potential lame-duck omnibus bill” being crafted by the Democratic Senate majority under Biden.
He said such measures “probably would be introduced after a sizable Republican victory in the 2024 elections that would give Republicans control of the Senate next year.”
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Republicans have poured significant resources into Senate candidates such as Bernie Moreno, Sam Brown, Tim Sheehy and Kali Lake, and are focusing on several at-risk incumbent Democrats and vacant seats. (Getty Images)
Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, who has repeatedly warned against returning to business as usual, especially when it comes to spending, said Lee’s proposed continuing resolution “makes sense to me,” adding that he would “absolutely” push for it in September.
Fiscal hawks explained that the stopgap spending bill would “slow down spending here,” noting that “anything other than a lasting solution would make people here spend more.”
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Marshall has advocated for ensuring a regular budget allocation process. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“And we need a commitment that when we get back here, we’ll go through some of the normal procedures for the budget process and do our utmost to prepare budget reconciliation, assuming we win on all three measures.”
Republican senators met with former President Trump on Thursday at the headquarters of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in Washington, D.C., except for Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Most attendees seemed to leave the meeting feeling optimistic about the GOP’s chances of victory in the next election.
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Trump is leading Biden in several key polls. (Left: Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Right: (Photographer: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images))
Democrats currently hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate. But Republicans are expected to have a much more favorable Senate electoral map with five of the incumbent Democratic senators in tough battleground states. Democrats also stand to lose three members of their party: Sens. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and Joe Manchin of Iowa and Virginia. The Senate seat in West Virginia is expected to be easily won by Republicans, a nonpartisan political handicap. Cook Political Report The vacant seats in Michigan and Arizona are both considered only “Democrat-leaning.”
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Moreover, Trump has a strong chance of retaking the White House and is leading President Biden in opinion polls in several key battleground states, giving hope to both himself and Republicans in Congress.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
