House Democratic leaders warned Friday that they won’t back a long-term extension of current funding levels, which GOP leaders are teeing up for a vote next week.
The top Democrats — Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.) and Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (Calif.) — said the Republicans’ bill is a “partisan” effort “that threatens to cut funding for healthcare, nutritional assistance and veterans benefits through the end of the current fiscal year.”
“That is not acceptable,” the Democrats wrote Friday in a letter to fellow House Democrats.
Lawmakers are racing to avert a shutdown before government funding runs out on March 14.
Friday’s letter amplifies a similar warning Jeffries had delivered in the Capitol a day earlier.
The Democrats are the minority party in the House, but their opposition to the spending bill could sink the effort, since Republicans hold just a hairline majority and some GOP lawmakers have not committed their support for the proposal.
Those dynamics are putting pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to unite his warring conference behind the spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), which would extend 2024 funding through September.
Johnson on Thursday predicted he’ll do just that.
“I believe we’ll pass it along party lines, but I think every Democrat should vote for the CR,” he told reporters in the Capitol.
Democrats are critical of the CR strategy because they want to fund the government at higher levels, established under the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), which was supported by both parties in 2023.
The top appropriators in both parties and both chambers have been in talks for months to secure a deal governed by the higher 2025 numbers. But Johnson has abandoned the effort, opting instead to keep the 2024 levels over the next six months. And Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said this week that he supports that plan.
“We’re not going to live through CRs every two weeks and all that kind of stuff,” Cole told reporters Wednesday. “The Speaker is very insistent that we go all the way to September. I agree with that decision.”
Democrats disagree, and they’re hoping their opposition to the CR will force Republicans back to the negotiating table.
“The top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Rosa DeLauro, remains ready to negotiate a meaningful bipartisan spending agreement that puts working people first,” the leaders wrote.
The Democrats charged that the Republicans’ CR plan is part of a broader strategy to cut funding to federal programs to help offset President Trump’s promised extension of tax cuts. They warned that the major social welfare programs won’t be spared.
“House Democrats would enthusiastically support a bill that protects Social Security, Medicare, veterans health and Medicaid, but Republicans have chosen to put them on the chopping block to pay for billionaire tax cuts,” the leaders wrote.
“We cannot back a measure that rips away life-sustaining healthcare and retirement benefits from everyday Americans as part of the Republican scheme to pay for massive tax cuts for their wealthy donors like Elon Musk,” they added.
“Medicaid is our redline.”
