House GOP reveals the bill to avoid closure, dare the Democrats

By Kevin Freking | Associated Press

Washington – The Républicains de la Chambre unveiled a bill of spending on Saturday that would maintain federal agencies funded until September 30, which goes forward with a strategy which seems to be certain to arouse a major confrontation with the Democrats on the contours of public spending.

The 99-page bill would give a slight boost to the defense programs while reducing non-defense programs lower than the levels of the budget year of 2024. This approach is likely to be a non-starter for most democrats who have long insisted that defense and non-defensive expenses move in the same direction.

The congress must act by midnight Friday to avoid partial closure of the government.

President Mike Johnson, R-La., Disprogue the bill for a vote on Tuesday despite the lack of buy-in democrats, mainly daring to vote against it and risks closing. He also bets that Republicans can build muscle legislation through the chamber largely.

Normally, when it comes to keeping the government fully open to business, the Republicans had to work with the Democrats to develop a bipartite measure that the two parties can support. This is because the Republicans hardly always have the votes to adopt expenditure invoices by themselves.

Above all, the strategy has the support of President Donald Trump, who has so far shown an ability to keep the Republicans online.

Trump praised the bill, publishing on his social platform Truth that the Republicans must “remain united – no dissent – fighting for another day when timing is right”.

“Great things happen to America, and I ask you all to give us a few months to get us through in September so that we can continue to put the country’s” financial house “, he said.

Management staff of the Republicans of Chamber A described the contours of the measure, saying that this would allow approximately $ 892.5 billion in defense spending and around $ 708 billion in non -defendant spending. Defense expenses are slightly higher at the previous year, but non-defense expenses, according to aid, were about $ 13 billion in last year.

The measure will not include the funding requested by individual legislators for thousands of community projects across the country, often called assignments.

But the Republicans noted that he would prevent the greatest salary increase to the military enlisted junior in more than 40 years, and he included an additional $ 500 million for a nutritional assistance program for women, infants and young children.

The bill does not cover the majority of public spending, including programs such as social security and health insurance. The financing of these two programs is on Auto Pilot and are not regularly examined by the Congress.

The best Democrats in the Credit Committees in the Chamber and the Senate, the representative of Connecticut, Rosa Delauro and the Washington senator, Patty Murray, both published statements that exploded the legislation.

“I firmly oppose this continuous resolution of the full year,” said Delauro.

Murray said that the legislation “would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk more power over federal expenses – and more power to choose the winners and losers, which threatens families in blue and red states”.

The Senator of Maine Susan Collins, who heads the Senate credit committee, said that the emphasis should be placed on the prevention of a closure because the closures have negative consequences throughout the government.

“They need certain essential employees of the government, such as agents of the border patrol, members of our military guard and our coastal guard, TSA screening and air traffic controllers, to present themselves without certainty when they will receive their next pay check,” said Collins. “We cannot allow this to happen.”

Trump’s unit’s request seems to have an effect. Some conservatives who almost never vote for continuous resolutions have expressed a lot of opening to a last week.

Representative Ralph Norman, RS.C., says that he has never voted for a continuous resolution, which legislators often call a CR, but he is on board the effort of Johnson. He says he has confidence in Trump and the government’s ministry of efficiency, led by Elon Musk, to make a difference on the country’s debt.

“I don’t like CRs,” said Norman. “But what is the alternative?” Negotiate with Democrats? No.”

“I was freezing spending for six months to identify more cuts?” Someone tells me how it is not a victory in Washington, “added the representative Chip Roy, R-Texas, another legislator who often voted against expenditure bills but supports the continuous resolution of six months.

Republicans also hope that this year’s spending resolution will allow them to devote all their attention to extending the individual tax reductions adopted during Trump’s first mandate and increasing the country’s debt limit to avoid a catastrophic federal defect.

Democratic leaders warn that the decision to move forward without consulting them increases the prospects for closing. One of their greatest concerns is the flexibility that legislation would give to the Trump administration on spending.

Democratic leadership of the two chambers stressed that the Republicans have a majority and are responsible for the financing of the government. But the leaders were also distrusted to say how the Democrats would vote on a continuous resolution.

“We have to wait to see what their plan is,” said Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer from New York. “We have always believed that the only solution is a bipartite solution, whatever happens.”

The Democratic Manager of the Hakeem Jeffries House in New York said earlier this week that the Democratic Caucus would meet and discuss the legislation at the “appropriate moment”. But he took a more powerful tone on Friday.

Jeffries said Democrats are ready to negotiate a “significant bipartisan expenditure agreement that puts workers first”. But he said that “continuing partisan resolution” threatens to reduce the financing of key programs, such as social benefits and nutritional assistance for low -income families.

“It’s not acceptable,” said Jeffries.

Trump met the House Republicans in order to win his votes on the legislation. Republicans have a majority 218-214 in the House, so if all legislators vote, they can afford only one defection if the Democrats unite in opposition. The calculations become even more difficult in the Senate, where at least seven democrats should vote for legislation to overcome an obstacle. And this assumes that the 53 Republicans vote for this.

Originally published: March 8, 2025 at 2:44 p.m. PST