{"id":13411,"date":"2025-09-18T12:17:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-democrats-steer-into-a-shutdown\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T12:17:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:17:25","slug":"capitol-agenda-democrats-steer-into-a-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-democrats-steer-into-a-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Democrats steer into a shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Democrats are flirting with a shutdown. Their endgame is unclear.<\/p>\n

Democrats are rallying around a hard-line approach to try to bring Republicans to the table to strike a government funding deal but don\u2019t have a clear view<\/a> of what victory looks like. For now, it\u2019s primarily about showing some fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may not have the luxury of a victory scenario,\u201d Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said. \u201cI think what we\u2019re trying to do is avoid things getting worse. I don\u2019t think victory is in anyone\u2019s hopes and dreams in this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats on Wednesday night released their own vision of a stopgap funding bill<\/a> that would extend health care subsidies and undo Medicaid cuts. It\u2019s an attempt at a rallying cry for a party that\u2019s not quite moving in lockstep on a shutdown strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Schumer Shutdown Plan reads like a draft of the platform for the 2028 Democrat National Convention,\u201d Senate GOP Whip John Barrasso will say during a floor speech Thursday.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has already vowed to support the GOP\u2019s funding patch, and several other Democratic senators have yet to commit to opposing it. Frontline House Democrats including Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.) and Jared Golden (Maine) have also been cagey in recent days about whether they\u2019ll oppose the Republican CR.<\/p>\n

Democrats will privately huddle in their respective chambers Thursday to discuss strategy.<\/p>\n

Speaker Mike Johnson is working to shore up his own ranks as he eyes a Friday morning vote on the GOP CR.<\/p>\n

Several Republicans are fighting to increase the bill\u2019s allocation of $30 million for additional member security, among them Reps. Tim Burchett (Tenn.) and Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.). Republicans can lose only two votes at full attendance without Democratic support. GOP Reps. Victoria Spartz (Ind.), Warren Davidson (Ohio) and Thomas Massie (Ky.) have threatened to oppose it.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Senate GOP to flex new rules for nominees: <\/b>The Senate is set to confirm 48 nominees Thursday with a single vote, after Republicans changed the chamber\u2019s rules to allow batch confirmations of most executive nominees and district court judges. The group includes picks from the Energy and Defense Departments. It also includes Kimberly Guilfoyle, who\u2019s nominated to be ambassador to Greece, and Callista Gingrich, who\u2019s nominated to be ambassador to Switzerland.<\/p>\n

\u2014 D.C. officials to testify on Blue Light News: <\/b>The District of Columbia\u2019s top elected officials are set to appear before Congress on Thursday for the first time since Trump temporarily assumed control of the Metropolitan Police Department and deployed the National Guard throughout the capital city. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Council Chair Phil Mendelson and Attorney General Brian Schwalb will face tough questioning from Republicans on their handling of crime in the District, even as it reported a 30-year low in violent crime last year.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Wu, Jordain Carney and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats are flirting with a shutdown. Their endgame is unclear. Democrats are rallying around a hard-line approach to try to bring Republicans to the table to strike a government funding deal but don\u2019t have a clear view of what victory looks like. For now, it\u2019s primarily about showing some fight. \u201cWe may not have the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}