Senate GOP quietly urges House to shift approach on shutdown talk

The Hill

5 days ago

Senate Republicans say President Trump has made it clear that he doesn't want a government shutdown, and they're urging House GOP lawmakers to tone down their approach to the Sept. 30 funding deadline.
House Republicans jammed Senate Democrats in March with a partisan funding bill, which Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) reluctantly voted for to avoid a shutdown.
But the political dynamics are different now. Schumer is under heavy pressure to fight harder against Trump and his MAGA-allies, heightening the chance of a shutdown if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) tries to use the same playbook.
'I know that our side won't want a shutdown, Trump hates that and rightly so,' said a Republican senator, who requested anonymity to discuss conversations with the White House.
The senator said 'the fate of the approps bills' to fund the government in fiscal year 2026 will be the focus of the GOP conference before it leaves for a four-week August recess.
A second Republican senator who requested anonymity said that Trump, who dined with Senate Republicans at the White House recently to celebrate the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, has made it clear to his allies on Capitol Hill that he wants to avoid a shutdown in the fall.
The president is focused on landing trade deals and touting the accomplishments included in the massive tax and spending package Congress passed before July 4.
This is a big reason why Senate Republicans have sought common ground with Democrats on the annual appropriations bills, hoping to put behind them the bruising partisan battles over the reconciliation bill and a measure that clawed back $9 billion in PBS, NPR and global aid funding.
The senator said that higher spending levels in the Senate appropriations bills offer a 'better path' to avoiding a government shutdown in the fall because they are less likely to provoke opposition from Democrats.
The Senate's Interior and Environment appropriations bill for 2026, for example, provides $41.45 billion in total funding, including $3.27 billion for the National Park Service and $6.17 billion for the Forest Service.
It passed out of committee with overwhelming bipartisan support, 26 to 2.
The House Interior, Environment and Related Agencies bill, by comparison, provides $38 billion in funding, which is $2.9 billion below the level enacted in 2025. It also includes 72 controversial policy riders that would restrict the issuance of rules to protect sage grouse, prohibit the implementation of an updated public lands rule and dictate the timing of offshore and onshore fossil-fuel extraction leases.
The House measure passed out of committee on a partisan 33-28 vote.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, complained last week that bipartisanship has been 'thwarted' on the House side.
'It's not a negotiation,' he said, arguing that the legislation being drafted by Republican House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (Okla.) 'does not look to being bipartisan in a way that both Democrats and Republicans can come together.'
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says that Senate Republicans want to avoid a last-minutes standoff with Democrats over funding that could threaten a shutdown.
The Senate GOP leader warned in an interview with the Ruthless Podcast that Schumer is unlikely to swallow a partisan funding deal sent over from the House shortly before the Sept. 30 deadline, noting that the Democratic leader 'got just blown up' for voting for the partisan year-long funding bill the House passed in March.
'I think [Democrats are] going to be under an enormous amount of pressure come fall, which is why … we need to do everything we can – House Republicans, Senate Republicans, President Trump and his team – to … set it up for success, to keep the government up and funded,' Thune said.
'And then … Chuck Schumer … what's he going to do? Is he going to bow to the Democratic base, or do the responsible thing and keep the government open? That's the decision,' he added.
A Democratic senator who requested anonymity to comment on discussions within the Democratic caucus said that Schumer is coming under heavy pressure from liberal colleagues to insist on a bipartisan funding stopgap. And they're urging him to reject any partisan funding measure akin to what the House jammed the Senate with in March.
'We all want to pursue a bipartisan, bicameral appropriations process. That's how it's always been done successfully and we believe that should happen. However, the Republicans are making it extremely difficult to do that,' Schumer told reporters after meeting with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) last week to discuss strategy.
Asked what he would do if the House sent another partisan continuing resolution to the Senate shortly before the funding deadline, Schumer said: 'We're for a bipartisan, bicameral bill. That's what's always been done. The onus is on the Republicans to make that happen.'
Senate Republicans have heard that message loud and clear and they want to avoid sticking Trump with a shutdown in the fall.
An element of the Senate Republican strategy is to pass several of the regular appropriations bills for fiscal year 2026 before the end of September to promote a sense of optimism that Republicans and Democrats can work together to fund the government.
GOP senators hope that, in turn, would reduce the temptation for the House to simply send to the Senate a stopgap funding measure that cuts deeply into Democratic priorities, as Johnson did in March, and dare Schumer to shut down the government.
By passing a few spending bills this week or in early September, Senate negotiators would be in a better position to insist that House GOP leaders meet them halfway.
The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday, 90 to 8, to proceed with its version of the military construction and Department of Veterans Affairs Appropriations bills.
Thune is trying to attach to that measure a bill funding the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration and another funding the departments of Commerce and Justice, science programs and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Thune tried to attach the legislative branch appropriations bill to the package but Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) objected, insisting on the measure getting a stand-alone vote.
The Senate will resume voting on nominees Monday while Thune attempts to get all 99 other senators to sign off on a time agreement for expanding the appropriations package beyond military construction and Veterans Affairs.
'We want to get as many bills considered in this tranche as possible,' Thune told reporters last week.