House GOP and Democratic leaders have initiated a war of preemptive blame, each faulting the other’s party if Congress can’t prevent a government shutdown next month.
“Republicans have been busy. There’s an ongoing internal GOP Civil War around the budget,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Friday. “We have to get serious about sitting down with Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats, House Democrats, and the administration in order to reach an agreement in advance of March 14th.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson had a different take, saying, “I mean, Leader Jeffries and others seem to be trying to set up some sort of government shutdown, which I think is very unfortunate.”
Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are struggling to find agreement on an overall spending limit as they stare down a March 14 deadline to keep government services afloat, their negotiations complicated by DOGE chief Elon Musk’s epic slashing of federal programs.
Anxiety and finger pointing are ramping up, even among Republicans.
After Johnson alleged Democrats have “been sort of unresponsive the last two days or so,” a powerful GOP House committee chairman directly refuted the speaker’s claim.
“That’s not true, he doesn’t know that. I mean, we heard [from Democrats] yesterday,” House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole said. He expressed concern about the time crunch to pass a funding bill.
Jeffries said Democrats are “ready, willing, and able to reach an agreement.” And he reminded reporters that Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House and, therefore, have the votes—and the power—to prevent a government funding lapse.
“Look. I get it, right? They’re spending a lot of time arguing with themselves as part of the ongoing GOP civil war around the budget agreement that we’ve yet to see presented to the American people,” Jeffries said at a press conference Friday.
Congress passed a three-month stopgap spending bill in December to avert a holiday shutdown. Republicans failed, however, to meet Trump’s demand that the funding measure include raising the debt ceiling.
Some conservative hardliners are already voicing reluctance to back another short-term bill.
“I’m concerned that the House and Senate will fully fund USAID in March, just like we did in December (I voted No). The argument from Republican leadership will be that they need Democrat votes to pass an omnibus (or CR) bill to avoid a government shutdown,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) posted on X.
A government shutdown would suspend, among other services, pay for many federal workers, food safety inspections, cybersecurity reviews and loans to rural homebuyers. National parks and monuments would close, congressional staff would not be paid—although members of Congress would—and airport TSA workers would be expected to work without pay until government funding is restored.
Democrats are fuming at Musk’s sweeping efforts to dismantle portions of the government, with suggestions emerging that Democrats may try to withhold votes for a government funding bill as a way to extract concessions from Republicans.
“Democrats are, as always, committed to responsibly funding the government, but it is extremely difficult to reach an agreement on toplines—much less full-year spending bills—when the president is illegally blocking vast chunks of approved funding, when he is trying to unilaterally shutter critical agencies, and when an unelected billionaire is empowered to force his way into our government’s central, highly-sensitive payments system [at the Treasury Department,” Sen. Patty Murray told Punchbowl.
