{"id":7156,"date":"2025-03-11T12:03:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T12:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-johnsons-spending-holdouts\/"},"modified":"2025-03-11T12:03:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T12:03:48","slug":"capitol-agenda-johnsons-spending-holdouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-johnsons-spending-holdouts\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Johnson\u2019s spending holdouts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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House GOP leaders went into the week with plans to pass their stopgap funding bill today without Democratic support. That might not be possible.<\/p>\n

With one surefire \u201cno\u201d in Rep. Thomas Massie, Republican leaders still need to wrangle a handful of potential holdouts \u2014 including Reps. Tony Gonzales, Tim Burchett, Cory Mills, Rich McCormick, Beth Van Duyne, Kat Cammack, Andy Ogles and Brian Fitzpatrick.<\/p>\n

This group seems more open than Massie to backing the funding patch that would avert a shutdown that could kick in Saturday. Gonzales has repeated he will make a \u201cgame-time decision.\u201d Mills said he needs \u201cfurther explanations on some areas.\u201d Others, like Ogles, might change their tune since leadership adjusted a provision in the bill<\/a> that increased the number of available visas for Afghan allies.<\/p>\n

The White House pressure campaign is in full swing. Trump is pushing for a primary challenger to Massie<\/a>, saying he will \u201clead the charge against him.\u201d Mills said Trump called him with OMB Director Russ Vought a few days ago to explain \u201csome of the pros and cons\u201d of the bill. Mills also got a call<\/a> from Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles on Monday. And Vice President JD Vance will join Republicans’ weekly conference meeting this morning.<\/p>\n

Trump and White House officials have been telling GOP holdouts who want more spending cuts that the administration will pursue impoundment \u2014 that is, holding back federal funding already appropriated by Congress \u2014 according to two Republicans who were in a recent meeting with the president.<\/p>\n

But many of these fence-sitting Republicans are waiting to see if any Democrats support the stopgap funding. That\u2019s unlikely: Many purple-district lawmakers are adamantly opposed. And while a few, including Reps. Laura Gillen and Don Davis, said that they were keeping their options open, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Monday that “it is not something we could ever support.”<\/p>\n

Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Sen. Patty Murray, Democrats\u2019 top appropriators, released a shorter-term stopgap Monday night that would fund the government through April 11 and give negotiators more time to finalize full funding bills. But even House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole has ruled out that option, saying there is no Plan B to the stopgap GOP leaders are putting on the floor today.<\/p>\n

Senate Democrats are still holding out hope. Across interviews and scrums Monday evening, 15 Democratic senators expressed hope that a shorter stopgap could prevail, that the full-year CR text could still change or that Speaker Mike Johnson would straight up fail to push the plan through as written.<\/p>\n

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