Top Republicans are digging in their heels against restricting President Trump’s powers in funding negotiations with Democrats, as both sides struggle to strike a deal to avert a government shutdown next month.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters on Wednesday that “substantial differences” remain between both parties as Congress stares down a March 14 deadline to pass legislation to keep the government running.
“Not so much on numbers, but over the presidential power issue with the Democrats, differences between the House and Senate,” Cole explained.
Democrats have pressed for assurances that a bipartisan funding deal that emerges from talks won’t be undercut by Trump amid his Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) sweeping operation to reshape the federal government.
Cole made the comments just moments after leaving a huddle with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine).
Following the meeting, Johnson also took aim at Democrats, accusing his colleagues across the aisle of making “completely unreasonable conditions” in funding talks.
“They want us to limit the power of the executive branch,” he argued. “They want us to stipulate in the appropriations vote for the first time in history that certain agencies in the executive branch would have to have a specific number of employees.”
“All sorts of just unreasonable, what I think are unconstitutional, demands,” he said. “There’ll be a violation of separation of powers. So we’re pretty far apart right now, but it is not because they’re Republicans. It’s because of the Democrats.”
Members on both sides say Trump’s efforts to shrink the size of government and implement funding cuts without approval from Congress has put a strain on funding talks.
As both chambers continue to run behind in their funding work, lawmakers have said a stopgap of some kind is necessary to prevent a shutdown next month.
However, Cole brushed off questions Wednesday about the prospect of a stopgap, also known as continuing resolution.
The meeting comes as Republicans are also working to get on the same page on funding, with some pushing for a full-year stopgap, which defense hawks are concerned would hurt the military, and others pressing for a short-term stopgap to buy time for a long-term funding strategy.
