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Republicans divided on stopgap strategy to prevent looming shutdown

2 15
04.09.2025

Republicans are divided as they try to chart a plan to keep the government open past the end of the month, with just 12 legislative days until funding runs out.

Top Republican appropriators are pushing for a short-term funding patch that lasts into November to buy time for Congress to strike a larger bipartisan deal to fund the government through early fall of 2026.

But some hard-line conservatives, nervous about the prospect of being jammed with a massive, end-of-year omnibus and hoping to avoid negotiating with Democrats on spending increases, have been agitating for another full-year continuing resolution (CR).

Whichever strategy Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) pursue will affect the odds of a government shutdown because Thune will need Democratic support to push government funding legislation through the Senate. But it also has implications for Johnson’s control of his fractious, razor-thin GOP majority.

“Here's what I think: Let's do a one-year CR if we're going to do that, and make it flat, so that there's actually the cut that is associated with inflation,” said Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), a former chair of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus. “I'm not interested in anything that gets us right before the holidays, because we all know exactly how that's going to go.”

Multiple Republicans have said the White House is eyeing a stopgap funding bill into the 2026 calendar year, giving a boost to the hard-liners who say Congress should push a long-term CR.

“We know the White House wants it into next year, and if we're going to put into next year, I say just go for it and put it into next December,” said House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.), who is also a senior appropriator.

Other Republican appropriators, however, want to go through the process........

© The Hill