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Congress is cruising at a steady clip toward a government shutdown at the end of the month, with both parties — and both chambers — pointing fingers at the other while refusing to blink.
Lawmakers from both chambers are in their home states this week after the House passed a GOP-crafted government funding bill that was swiftly rejected by the Senate, along with a competing proposal to keep the government open. Senators aren’t expected to return until Sept. 29 and House lawmakers not until October.
The impasse has created a game of shutdown chicken, as Congress lurches toward the Oct. 1 deadline without a clear path forward and leaders of both parties dig in their heels and cast the blame across the aisle.
“I don’t want a shutdown. The president of the United States doesn’t want a shutdown. Republicans in the Senate don’t want a shutdown,” said Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
“If there’s a shutdown, it’s because Democrats wanted to shut it down.”
Democrats responded in kind, arguing that Republicans control all the levers of power in Washington and, therefore, GOP leaders would be responsible for any shutdown that occurs.
“We’ve heard all year how Republicans have a mandate, how Republicans have the presidency, how Republicans control the House, how Republicans control the Senate. Well, if that, in fact, is the case — as is the moment, temporarily — Republicans will own a government shutdown. Period. Full stop,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said.
“It’s the Republican shutdown.”
The confidence from both parties that the other will bear the blame of a shutdown has eroded any serious effort to seek a bipartisan compromise beforehand. Cole, summarizing the Republicans’ position, was quick to note that the Republicans’ CR is largely “clean,” meaning it keeps most spending at current levels.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) had backed those levels in March, and Republicans are now accusing him of hypocrisy for changing his position in the current fight.
“There is nothing in this bill that is remotely partisan, and they know it,” Cole said.
“If they adopt the CR that we sent them, then there’s enough time to do these things. If they don’t, then we’ll look at a government shutdown. But that’s up to the Senate now,” he added.
“The House has spoken.”
Democrats have different ideas. They’re warning that the Republicans’ budget plan, by continuing policies enacted over the summer in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, threatens to gut health care programs, including medical research, low-income nutrition benefits and mental health services.
They’re also demanding quick action to address enhanced ObamaCare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.
“Republicans created this bill, this budget, all on their own,” said Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the Democratic whip. “And if they want to pass a budget that rips away health care, destroys jobs and soars costs — if they want to make health care a luxury reserved for the rich — they can do that on their own.”
Exacerbating the tensions, House GOP leaders on Friday cancelled the chamber’s scheduled return on Sept. 29 and 30, meaning House lawmakers aren’t expected to be in session to prevent a shutdown before the deadline. The move was designed to jam Senate Democrats into accepting the Republicans’ House-passed bill. But only one Senate Democrat, John Fetterman (D-Pa.), supported that bill when it came to the floor on Friday, and Schumer has shown no signs of backing down since that failed vote.
Indeed, the Democratic opposition seems to have grown only more pronounced since Johnson’s calendar abbreviation.
“Beyond allowing members to leave Washington before we have addressed the looming funding deadline, he has extended the Republican vacation by two days,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said. “Speaker Johnson is silencing members and shutting down the House in advance of a government-wide shutdown.
“This move is shameful and must be reversed.”
Even some Republicans are worried about the bad optics of Congress being out of session as the government closes its doors due to lawmaker inaction.
“I hope we’ll come back,” Cole said. “Our leaders have to make that decision, but I intend to be back here. I don’t think it’s a good look to be home when the government shuts down.”
From the White House, Trump has roiled the debate by urging GOP leaders to cut Democrats out of the talks and force Senate Democrats to swallow the House bill — or risk being blamed for a shutdown.
“Don’t even bother dealing with them,” the president told reporters last week.
That advice seems only to have strengthened the Democrats’ resolve to stand firm in opposition to the bill, even as the shutdown deadline crawls closer with no sign of a breakthrough.
“Donald Trump does not want to talk,” Schumer said last week. “You have to have two parties to pass a bill. If you say “don’t deal with Democrats,” they’re saying they want a shutdown.”
Schumer, however, had reluctantly joined Republicans in March to help pass a similar CR and send it to Trump’s desk. With the deadline approaching, they’re banking on a similar scenario playing out this time around.
“I believe that the Democrats in the Senate will actually vote for it as well,” said Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the House GOP whip. “They’re not going to shut the government down.”
Emily Brooks contributed reporting.
