The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee is rejecting the idea of a stopgap spending bill to fund the government at current levels through the remainder of the fiscal year.
That proposal is being pushed by President Trump, who endorsed a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) last week, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who blanketed the Sunday news shows over the weekend to back Trump’s plan.
But Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) has other ideas. The ranking member of the Appropriations panel, DeLauro has been in talks for months with the top appropriators in both parties and both chambers in search of a deal on 2025 spending. On Tuesday, she rejected the idea of abandoning those talks for a long-term continuation of 2024 levels.
“A one-year CR is a non-starter,” DeLauro told reporters in the Capitol.
The pushback sets up a clash between the parties over how to fund the federal government and prevent a shutdown after March 14, when current spending is scheduled to expire.
A complicating factor amid the debate has been the cost-cutting efforts of Trump, Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Last week, Johnson had floated the idea of incorporating some of those executive-level cuts into Congress’s spending plan. But on Sunday, he stepped away from that plan, advocating for the “clean” CR that Trump had proposed a few days earlier.
“We’re looking to pass a clean CR to freeze funding at current levels to make sure that the government can stay open while we begin to incorporate all these savings that we’re finding through the DOGE effort and these other sources of revenue that President Trump’s policies are bringing to the table,” Johnson said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program.
On Tuesday, he called DeLauro’s stance “very unfortunate and terribly irresponsible.”
“We’re halfway through the year already and they have made the negotiations impossible because they’re insisting upon conditions that cannot be fulfilled, that would violate separation of powers, they want to limit the authority of the executive branch,” Johnson added. “They know that that is not something that can or should be done, and so it’s a game they’re playing. But if they refuse to vote on funding the government, the shutdown will be on their shoulders.”
DeLauro, along with other Democratic leaders, however, have voiced concerns that Trump is ignoring congressional intent in deciding which programs to fund and which to gut — a violation of the constitutional separation of powers, they say, which gives Congress the explicit authority to spend money where it sees fit. They are looking for assurances in the funding bill to make sure Trump spends the money as appropriated.
“For me that is moving away from the table — leaving the table — of negotiation as we try to go forward to get one-year bills,” DeLauro said. “A long-term CR does not benefit anyone. It really turns the power of the purse — really, it turns it over to the executive.”
Aris Folley and Mychael Schnell contributed reporting. Updated at 1:28 p.m.
