The debate among Republicans over whether to punt government funding into the new year is heating up, as lawmakers race toward their next shutdown deadline.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) this week said lawmakers are running out of time until the Dec. 20 deadline and that passing an extension into early 2025 “would be ultimately a good move” because it would give Republicans and President-elect Trump “a little more say in what those spending bills are.”

But the idea doesn’t have total buy-in from the conference amid concerns from defense hawks and the party’s top spending negotiators.

“We've got to break this cycle, and this kicking it into next year is not good,” House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said on Tuesday. “It’s not fair to the new president, it's not fair to the new members. They're going to have to vote on this. I'm not okay with any of this, I would like to finish the bills.”

Top Democrats, meanwhile, have also expressed a strong preference for completing fiscal 2025 funding work by Dec. 20, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, declined to say if she and Democrats will support a continuing resolution (CR) if the funding talks fall through.

“My job is to fight like hell to get us to Dec. 20,” she........

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