House GOP caves on crappy budget, but Senate Democrats can block it

Nearly every House Republican on Tuesday night voted to pass a government funding extension through September, tossing aside their long-standing opposition to spending bills after having their arms twisted by Dear Leader Donald Trump. After passing the...

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Nearly every House Republican on Tuesday night voted to pass a government funding extension through September, tossing aside their long-standing opposition to spending bills after having their arms twisted by Dear Leader Donald Trump.

After passing the bill, House Republicans left town—daring the Senate to pass the legislation or else be responsible for the government shutting down at midnight on Friday when federal funding runs out.

Only one House Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, voted against the bill—which funds the government through September while making billions in cuts to projects lawmakers got funded in their districts for everything from food and housing assistance, veterans health care, disaster mitigation efforts, and infrastructure projects.

The funding bill also strips Congress of its power to stop the destructive tariffs Trump has placed on China as well as Canada and Mexico—the United States' largest trading partners. And it slashes $1 billion from the District of Columbia's budget, which city officials say will endanger its ability to pay law enforcement and teachers.

Republicans voted to pass the funding bill—known as a Continuing Resolution—even though dozens of House Republicans have voted against CRs in the past because they are against the practice of funding the government at previous year levels without making significant cuts. For example, Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) declared in September 2023—when the government was on the brink of a shutdown—“No more CRs.” But of course on Tuesday, Crane voted for the CR. 

It’s especially egregious given that the funding bill provides money for things that co-President Elon Musk has tried to strip from the funding bill, including money for the virtually shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Department of Education, which just cut almost half of its staff and which Trump is demanding be shuttered.

All but one Democrat (Rep. Jared Golden of Maine) voted against the funding bill for that very reason, saying the levels in the funding bill don’t even matter because Trump and Musk will ignore what Congress put in the bill and cut from it what they want. In fact, GOP leaders were selling the bill to Republican lawmakers by making that very point. 

“This Congress must decide: do we have the authority to control spending, as we were granted and is laid out in Article I of the Constitution? Why would we want to relinquish this to give this administration, which is already doing massive harm, dismantling agencies, firing people, telling them today they are no longer needed, the chaos and confusion caused by Elon Musk and President Trump—why would we want to turn over our authority to appropriate bills?” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, wrote in a statement explaining why she voted against the funding bil.

Massie, the lone Republican to vote against the bill, made a similar point.

"I’m not voting for the Continuing Resolution budget (cut-copy-paste omnibus) this week. Why would I vote to continue the waste fraud and abuse DOGE has found?" Massie wrote in a post on X. "We were told the CR in December would get us to March when we would fight. Here we are in March, punting again! WTFO."

Sen. John Fetterman

Republicans control the Senate. However, in order to avoid a filibuster they must get at least seven Democrats to vote to advance the funding bill to the floor for a full vote, assuming every GOP senator is also on board.

And Democrats have not yet decided what to do.

“There’s a lot of spirited discussion,” Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, told The Washington Post. “There’s really only two options: One is to vote for a pretty bad CR or the other is to vote for a potentially even worse shutdown.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) criticized Democrats and said he would be voting for the funding bill.

“The weeks of performative ‘resistance’ from those in my party were limited to undignified antics,” Fetterman wrote in a post on X. “Voting to shut the government down will punish millions or risk a recession. I disagree with many points in the CR, but I will never vote to shut our government down.”

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