After Senate moves bipartisan spending bills, Dem leaders request sit down on shutdown-aversion plan

The House and Senate Democratic leaders are asking their Republican counterparts to meet regarding government funding for fiscal 2026, warning that a failure to do so could result in a government shutdown come October. 

The Aug. 4 letter followed the Senate last week approving the first three appropriations bills for next year of the 12 Congress must pass annually. The bills to fund the departments of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture, as well as the legislative branch, won broad, bipartisan support. Unlike those put forward by House Republicans, the measures would provide modest spending boosts for the covered agencies. 

In their letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the minority leaders in the Senate and House, respectively, noted the Sept. 30 funding deadline is fast approaching and their counterparts would have to work with them to “avert a painful, unnecessary shutdown at the end of September.” 

They asked Thune and Johnson to quickly convene a meeting to discuss a path forward for fiscal 2026 funding. 

Thune recently told Politico that a stopgap spending bill will be necessary to avoid a shutdown at the end of September, but said he hopes Congress will have already sent several appropriations bills to President Trump for his signature before that deadline. A continuing resolution would then only be necessary to keep the agencies afloat that were not otherwise covered by a full-year bill. 

Some Republicans have floated another full-year CR, as Congress passed for the current fiscal year, but leadership for now is seeking to avoid such a fate. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Thune have suggested they usher through another package of spending bills when Congress returns from its August recess. 

Collins’ panel has already approved eight of the 12 annual funding bills, nearly all of which cleared the committee with little resistance. Those measures generally rejected Trump’s proposed cuts and instead provided most agencies with modest funding bumps. 

The House has cleared just two spending bills after approving nine at the committee level, but has done so along party lines. Republicans in the lower chamber have also rejected most of Trump’s most dramatic cut proposals, but have still voted to reduce spending for most agencies while demanding significant staffing cuts at many of them. 

Final approval of any spending plan will require 60 votes in the Senate, meaning Republicans will have to win support of at least some Democrats. Schumer and Jeffries said they are ready to work in a bipartisan manner, though some members of their party have suggested taking a hard-line approach after Republicans approved a rescissions package the White House requested to claw back more than $9 billion in previously approved funding. Those lawmakers could become even more entrenched in their position if the White House makes another such request, or if Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought follows through on his threat to unilaterally withhold funds at the end of the fiscal year through a “pocket rescission.” 

Senate Democrats have so far worked with Republicans to approve spending bills, saying Congress must assert its power of the purse. 

“I believe Congress should decide how to spend taxpayer dollars, not Russ Vought or the president,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said after the Senate approved its funding packages on Friday. “I strongly believe that the bills we passed tonight, and the other bipartisan bills we are writing, are the best path forward for us to get the best outcome for our communities.”

The Government Accountability Office on Tuesday issued a report that the Trump administration violated the Impoundment Control Act by illegally withholding funds for the National Institutes of Health, the watchdog’s fifth such finding this year.