Trump urges GOP to ‘stick together’ on stopgap spending bill as dissent emerges

Congressional Republicans are planning to try to block Democrats with a stopgap spending bill, similar to their successful play in March, but are facing some resistance within their ranks.

President Trump stepped in Monday to call for GOP unity ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government, as he wants Democrats to shoulder the blame if there’s a shutdown.

“In times like these, Republicans have to stick TOGETHER to fight back against the Radical Left Democrat demands, and vote ‘YES!’” Mr. Trump posted on social media. “Democrats want the Government to shut down. Republicans want the Government to OPEN.”

Democrats are demanding the GOP negotiate with them on health care policy, including an extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies that expire at the end of the year.

Republicans say they won’t negotiate “extraneous issues” and are planning to advance a “clean” stopgap spending bill extending current government funding levels and policies through Nov. 20.

A vote in the House is expected later this week, although GOP leaders have not yet released the stopgap bill — known as a continuing resolution, or CR — as they seek to finalize details on additional funding for lawmaker security.

Some House Republicans have already begun publicly questioning their leadership’s plan, prompting the president to step in and try to quell the dissent.  

Mr. Trump accused Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, of trying to orchestrate a government shutdown and suggested GOP unity is necessary to ensure the Democrats are blamed.

“FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION,” Mr. Trump warned.

Mr. Schumer said Democrats do not want a shutdown, but Republicans have so far refused their requests to meet. He said they want a “bipartisan negotiation where we can address some of the grave harms Donald Trump has caused to our health care system and help Americans with the cost of living.”

Republicans did not negotiate with Democrats in March, when they passed a stopgap spending bill for the remainder of fiscal 2025, but Mr. Schumer and a handful of Senate Democrats voted with them to keep the government open.

Mr. Schumer took heat from his party for that move, and is now vying to fight as Republicans run the same play.

Opposition from a few House Republicans is threatening the GOP’s strategy to make Democrats look like the obstinate party.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, cannot afford more than two GOP defections on the measure and there are at least four — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Warren Davidson of Ohio and Victoria Spartz of Indiana — publicly panning the plan.

Without explicitly saying she’s a “no,” Ms. Greene has doubled down in social media posts after she informed GOP leaders months ago she could not vote for another stopgap spending bill that continues funding levels and policies from the Biden administration. 

“I can’t wait to see how voting for the CR becomes a Trump loyalty test,” she said. “When in all actual reality, it’s a disloyalty to him by passing a Biden policy laden omnibus. Instead of passing a Republican appropriations bill with Trump policies and our spending priorities, in order to make his policies permanent.”

Congress last enacted new appropriations bills in fiscal 2024, totaling $1.6 trillion in annual discretionary spending. The government has run on stopgap extensions ever since, meaning little has changed in law since Mr. Trump took office for his second term.

“I didn’t vote for those spending priorities when Biden was president and I won’t vote for them now,” Mr. Massie said.

Mr. Davidson is likewise frustrated with what he dubbed the GOP’s “status quo thinking and approaches (soft incrementalism at best).”  

“So I’m out on another CR for the sake of more government,” he said. “We know we need a smaller, more accountable, more focused America First government. I will tolerate nothing else.”

Ms. Spartz said she would vote for a CR, just not one running through Nov. 20, when Congress is set to break for Thanksgiving. 

The speaker said the bill text of the CR is still being finalized because leaders have yet to decide how much funding for lawmaker security to add, after the assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk heightened anxiety about political threats.

The Trump administration over the weekend sent Congress a request for $58 million to provide security for executive and judicial branch officials, but lawmakers have yet to determine what is needed for the legislative branch, Mr. Johnson said. 

“We don’t have consensus around that yet, because all of this is pretty rapidly developed over the last few days,” the speaker said. 

If Mr. Johnson muscles the CR through the House, the Senate is expected to take it up immediately, even if it means staying in session this weekend. Both chambers are scheduled to be on recess next week for the Jewish holidays.