Leaders squabble, appropriators stoic as shutdown deadline approaches

Five weeks away from a government funding deadline, tensions are spiking among lawmakers and shutdown fears are rising.

Top-level relations soured Friday, with Speaker Mike Johnson accusing Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of “trying to set up some sort of a government shutdown” and saying Democrats were “unresponsive.”

Jeffries then shot back, telling reporters Johnson’s comments were “projection” as Democrats remain at the negotiating table. He had backing from the top House GOP appropriator, who said he had spoken with his Democratic counterparts Thursday.

Republicans have been hounding Johnson about a spending plan as the speaker tries to hammer out their conference’s differences on their separate, party-line domestic policy bill. Johnson told reporters later Friday he’d been “laser focused on reconciliation for the last 24 hours,” referring to the budget procedure Republicans intend to use to pass their agenda.

Despite the bluster, top appropriators from both chambers and both parties — known as the “four corners” — are trying to hash out an agreement on topline spending levels. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the panel, continues to present a relatively upbeat — if urgent — mood about the talks even as the shutdown deadline approaches.

But there are obvious snags. Democrats say they are awaiting a unified offer from House and Senate Republicans, whose numbers are still not aligned. Republicans, meanwhile, are openly discussing a full-year continuing resolution, which would continue fiscal 2024’s spending levels into fiscal 2025 with only a few potential modifications.

Democrats, still feeling burned by the last-minute blowup of a funding deal they cut with Republicans in December, aren’t in any mood to help out with that. DeLauro, for instance, said a yearlong stopgap bill “should be acceptable to no one.”

DeLauro said it was still possible to come to a deal but added that what happened in December — with billionaire Donald Trump ally Elon Musk publicly seeking to tank the agreement — “can’t happen again. We need assurances that once the agreement is made, we can move forward and get these bills done.”

“After twice breaking deals last session, I don’t think there’s a Democrat who says, let them hold up a football again so we can try to kick it,” added Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.). “And it’s going to have to be something consequential and verifiable before I think any of us would be there to support.”

Cole said he continues to prefer passing new, written-from-scratch spending bills for fiscal 2025 over a full-year stopgap. But as appetite grows within his conference to keep spending down, doing so could be a tall order.

“It’s not an unreasonable argument. We’re halfway through. We haven’t gotten it done. Why don’t we wait for the president to lay out his budget and proceed from there?” Cole told reporters Friday morning, discussing the rising calls for a CR. “Every day that goes by, the pressure to just throw in the cards and quit mounts.”

Meanwhile, some Democrats are discussing using their limited leverage over government funding and a coming debt ceiling deadline to extract concessions from Republicans. Those could include protections for “Dreamers,” farmworkers and immigrant families as they seek to respond to GOP hard-line moves on immigration.

“They are a crossroads in this entire process that would allow us to perhaps insert those three pieces into the debate,” said Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), chair of the Hispanic Caucus.

But with Republicans in control of the House and Senate and the White House, Democrats could face a hard choice next month between shutting down the government — something they typically oppose under nearly any circumstance — and supporting a GOP-drafted bill to keep the lights on.

“We’ll see,” Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Friday. “Everybody knows that Democrats don’t want to shut down the government.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.