Congress
‘Time is running out’: Lawmakers scramble for a deal to stop a shutdown
A Capitol Hill clash over President Donald Trump’s extraordinary moves to take control of federal spending is upping the chances that lawmakers won’t have a deal to fund the government before a shutdown deadline in just three weeks.
Talks between the top appropriators in the House and Senate have soured in the past week, with lawmakers still searching for an agreement on topline spending levels that are a prerequisite for funding individual agencies and programs for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Negotiators have insisted they are staying at the table to hash out an accord. But there’s no clear strategy to break the logjam, and House Republican leaders privately acknowledge that contingency plans need to be drawn up in case the impasse continues ahead of the March 14 deadline.
“Time is running out,” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins of Maine told reporters.
The stalemate has been driven in part by partisan distrust over the Trump administration’s remarkable seizure of the federal purse strings. Democrats want assurances from Republicans that the administration will adhere to Congress’s wishes on spending as Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk summarily cut jobs and programs.
“The one thing Rosa DeLauro and I are asking for is simply an assurance that if there’s going to be Democratic votes, that the president and Elon Musk will follow the law, and they won’t just take our bill that we’ve worked really hard on and rip it up and it doesn’t matter,” Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters Thursday, referring to her counterpart on the House Appropriations Committee.
Though more GOP lawmakers are starting to speak out against the executive branch’s unilateral freezing of federal funds, Republican leaders are not likely to agree to checks on Trump’s ability to slash spending.
That has made a continuing resolution, which funds the government under the prior year’s spending levels, look more appealing to members of both parties — though even this alternative poses a risk of a shutdown.
A core group of House Republicans have repeatedly threatened to revolt if their leaders move forward with anything other than 12 individually negotiated spending measures. They want those bills to include certain conservative policy riders and spending cuts.
Democrats, meanwhile, are signaling they won’t bail Republicans out: DeLauro has said that if a long-term continuing resolution were to come to the floor — one that lasts beyond just a few days to let lawmakers put the finishing touches on a full-year bill — it would be “the job of the majority” to pass it.
Murray in a floor speech Thursday called a full-year continuing resolution a “nonstarter” that would end up creating “slush funds for this administration to adjust spending priorities and potentially eliminate longstanding programs as they see fit.”
A stopgap spending bill would also force Congress to lurch weeks or months at a time on status quo spending, bringing uncertainty to agencies that are already besieged by Trump and Musk’s unpredictable personnel cuts. Short-term, flat funding can halt military equipment upgrades, hinder strategic planning and prompt hiring and procurement freezes.
A sign negotiations were beginning to nosedive came Thursday afternoon, when Collins and Murray volunteered within an hour of each other very different readings on the state of the discussions.
Murray insisted negotiators are “extremely close” to landing the topline numbers and that she was in “constant communication” with her Republican colleagues, but didn’t explain how she squared her confidence with the fact that she and DeLauro are pushing for commitments to rein in Musk and Trump that Republicans are unlikely to accept.
Meanwhile, Collins said talks “appear to be at an impasse” after she and House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma made a joint offer to Democrats on Sunday that had gone without a substantive reply “other than just a perfunctory acknowledgement.”
“I am very in disappointed,” Collins said in a brief interview.
The House has been in recess this past week, but members’ return on Monday could bring more clarity to the state of the talks. In interviews at the Capitol over the past few days, senators have expressed hopes of landing a deal so their efforts to negotiate individual funding bills don’t go to waste.
It typically takes at least a month for lawmakers to close out negotiations on the dozen appropriations bills once an overarching agreement on topline spending levels is locked in, but some Senate Appropriations subcommittee chairs say they will be ready to go when — or if — those numbers are delivered.
“We’ve been ready to go for a long time — we get a top line number, we’ll be done like that,” Sen. John Hoeven, chair of the Senate Appropriations Agriculture subcommittee, said in a brief interview, clapping his hands to emphasize the speed at which his panel is prepared to act.
“We’re looking forward to it,” said Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), chair of the Homeland Security subcommittee, of a toplines deal. “We want to get to work.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, who leads Democrats on the Agriculture subcommittee, offered a more sobering assessment: “It will be challenging to get something done by the 14th.”
Senate Republicans are hopeful they will be able to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general by the end of the week. But he’s not in the clear yet, as several undecided GOP senators continue to mull it over.
Blanche’s prospects were nonetheless much improved Monday — less than 24 hours after some GOP senators were predicting he was unlikely to get confirmed as a war of words escalated between President Donald Trump and holdout Republicans.
But then Blanche cut a deal with Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) late Sunday night to clarify a controversial settlement between Trump and the IRS, giving Blanche the votes he needed to get through the Judiciary Committee Tuesday.
He still needs to get through the full Senate, where he can only lose two Republican votes given likely unified opposition from Senate Democrats and Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell’s absence.
Several GOP senators who raised alarms last week about Trump’s public threats to rekindle the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” Cornyn and Tillis worked to kill declined to say Monday how they’d vote on Blanche.But in a positive sign for the acting attorney general, several are looking to Tillis and Cornyn, who are now supporting him, as a lodestar for their own deliberations ahead of likely floor votes later this week.
“I think certainly the fact that he has signed this order, basically disbanding [the fund] — that’s a pretty good step,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), before adding that she would “like to find out a little bit more about the negotiations.”
Murkowski said she plans to speak with Tillis and Cornyn.
“I’m curious about what went on over the weekend,” she said.
Blanche has made efforts to ingratiate himself with Murkowski. In July, he trekked to Alaska, in part at Murkowski’s urging, to better understand public safety and tribal jurisdiction matters. He recently announced a nine-figure settlement benefiting Alaska natives’ health care that Murkowski was pleased with.
“I just appreciated the fact that he went to the state,” Murkowski said. “He was only there for two days, but I had asked him in my initial meeting to go up to the state.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who like Cornyn lost his primary earlier this year to a Trump-backed challenger, declined to discuss Blanche Monday. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) added that she also wanted to talk to Tillis and Cornyn and read the agreement they struck with Blanche.
“Until I do that, I am not going to make a judgement,” Collins said.
Another Republican who hasn’t yet committed to supporting Blanche is Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah). He met with Blanche last week but hasn’t yet weighed in since Sunday night’s agreement. He had indicated before Sunday’s deal that he would be closely tracking Tillis and Cornyn during Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee meeting.
Getting Blanche’s nomination on a trajectory to pass the Senate this week would relieve some of the pressure on Senate Republicans, who are juggling a long to-do list and a shrinking runway to get it done. Trump, amid last week’s standoff, demanded that Senate Republicans confirm Blanche, including warning during a Cabinet meeting that they “will never get anybody like him.”
Tillis told reporters Monday that “the back-and-forth over the weekend was not helpful” but that the talks “ended up at an acceptable place.”
If Blanche gets out of the Judiciary Committee Tuesday as expected, the soonest the Senate could confirm him as attorney general is Saturday unless Democrats unanimously agree to help speed up a final vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that he’s hopeful the Senate will be able to confirm Blanche but didn’t give an ironclad guarantee as the remaining undecided members review the agreement and talk to Tillis and Cornyn.
“I’d like to figure out a way, a path forward to get him done,” Thune said.
Democrats are likely to use Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee meeting, and the days leading up to a full Senate vote, to hammer Republicans over the deal Cornyn and Tillis struck. Many predicted Monday that Trump wouldn’t stick by the agreement that limits the scope of the IRS settlement and nullifies the $1.8 billion payout fund.
“There are so many loopholes. I wouldn’t be surprised if the president went ahead with the program,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) warned the remaining undecided Republicans about the deal: “I don’t think that that commitment is worth what it’s written on.”
While Democrats can drag Blanche’s confirmation into the weekend, they aren’t able to prevent him from being confirmed if at least 50 GOP senators support him. But they are determined to use the debate to hit at one of their central midterm campaign messages — corruption — with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling Blanche the “architect of Trump’s grifts.”
Tillis suggested Monday he still has questions about who in Trump’s orbit played a role in the roller coaster negotiations over the past week. While the retiring senator is prepared to support Blanche, he said that he’s “not done analyzing the anatomy of this deal and who played a role in there.”
“I’m not going to speak for other members, but I think that it’ll be a solid vote,” he added about Blanche’s chances of being confirmed.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who appeared skeptical during a Sunday morning talk show interview that Blanche would get through the Senate, did a 180 Monday when asked whether he would get confirmed: “Yes, I do.”
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
Multiple Senate Republicans joined Sen. Bernie Moreno in calling for Rep. Max Miller to step down from office Monday amid domestic abuse allegations from the Ohio senator’s daughter.
Bernie Moreno — father of Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno — said in a statement Sunday that Miller should not serve in the House soon after the House Republican did a livestream video attempting to defend himself from abuse accusations.
Many of Bernie Moreno’s GOP colleagues were quick to back him following the statement.
“I don’t know [Miller]. I haven’t read a whole lot about him, but if [Moreno] thinks he ought to resign, I’m supportive of that,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said in an interview.
Miller has denied the allegations, which include pouring hot water on his ex-wife and holding a gun to her head. He has also denied accusations from his ex-wife that he broke his daughter’s collarbone.
Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas condemned Miller, adding, “He should resign. He should quit.”
“I don’t know Mr. Miller’s story, but I trust Bernie so much as a good friend, and his family has such high values,” Marshall said in an interview. “I couldn’t imagine them wanting this out in public. So to go through with this, it makes me think that they’re telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
The surge of support from Bernie Moreno’s Senate colleagues marks the first significant crack in a wall of GOP silence regarding the allegations against Miller. The skepticism from Miller’s own party will almost certainly weigh down the congressman’s already floundering campaign as he battles Democratic candidate Brian Poindexter to keep his Cleveland-area House seat.
Miller has until Wednesday to withdraw from the ballot and allow a crash primary to select a replacement.
Some Republican lawmakers stopped short of calling on Miller to withdraw or resign while expressing grave concern about the allegations.
“The accusations are very serious, and if there is truth to them, I am one who says that our elected officials need to be held to high standards,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said. “And certainly, when it comes to allegations of domestic abuse, child abuse, that’s not what we want in our lawmakers.”
A spokesperson for Miller did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In response to Moreno’s statement, Miller said on Sunday, “If my daughter said the same thing to me, I personally wouldn’t wait two years before holding him accountable.”
“You know this isn’t true and the only reason you are speaking out now is to hide from your own media circus,” he added in the post on X.
Notably still silent was GOP Sen. Jon Husted, Ohio’s other senator, who while leaving the Capitol Monday did not respond to reporters’ questions about whether Miller should resign.
Other Republicans in the Ohio House delegation are also staying quiet for now. Almost every House Republican from the state either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment on Moreno’s statement.
The exception was Rep. Jim Jordan, who brushed off questions in a Thursday CNN interview about Miller but noted he was “a good man” and was recently campaigning for him.
Asked Monday if Miller should still serve in Congress following Bernie Moreno’s statement, spokesperson for Jordan Stefanie Farrell said, “As Mr. Jordan has said, it’s up to the voters of Ohio’s 7th District.”
Back in the Senate, other Republicans who were unaware of the situation declined to weigh in on the incident.
“I am not aware of the situation, so I don’t have a comment right now,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who has been a leading GOP voice on domestic violence issues within the military.
But a steady drip of Republican senators said Monday evening they trusted Bernie Moreno.“It would surprise me if Bernie were being untruthful,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming said. “I guess I was surprised that it bubbled up to the public sphere, but I suspect that Bernie has got a beat on the situation.”
Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia said he was unaware of the details of the allegations but that “Bernie’s a pretty level-headed guy.”
“I don’t know enough about the allegations, but like Bernie said, it sounds like he thinks he needs psychological help,” Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said, adding, “I trust Bernie.”
Chris Marquette contributed to this report.
Senate Budget Committee Republicans will meet Tuesday morning to talk about advancing a fiscal blueprint for a new party-line spending bill.
Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) declined to say , in an interview Monday if he plans to introduce a resolution this week, noting that he was “working with leadership” and that the “first priority” is to pass a stopgap spending bill. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a panel member, said he didn’t expect the Senate to take up a budget resolution this week because “I don’t think my leadership wants to do it.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune hasn’t ruled out taking up a budget resolution but has been frank about the challenges it faces among GOP senators.
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