House Republicans released a 100-page stopgap spending bill Saturday afternoon that will fund the government through the end of September at levels slightly below last year’s.
Why it matters: The bill represents a coordinated effort by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and President Trump to avoid a shutdown after March 14. A vote is planned for Tuesday.
- “It is quite literally as clean as a CR as you can draft,” a House Republican leadership aide told reporters.
- GOP leaders are talking about passing the spending bill with only Republican votes, which hasn’t happened in recent memory.
Driving the news: House Democratic leaders hinted late Friday that they might oppose the legislation, setting up a showdown, with the prospect of a government shutdown hanging in the balance.
- “Medicaid is our redline,” they wrote in a Dear Colleague letter.
- If the short-term legislation clears the House, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) will need to find at least eight Democratic votes to pass the bill in that chamber.
Zoom in: The House legislation includes $892.5 billion for defense spending and $708 billion for non-defense spending. Those numbers are below the caps established in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 and the money appropriated last year.
- “We are about $7 billion dollars below FY 2024 levels,” the GOP aide told reporters.
- “Non-defense (spending) will decrease under the bill, but important stuff, like Veterans Healthcare is protected,” the aid said.
- The bill also includes more money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which GOP officials said the agency has been requesting since the Biden administration.
- The legislation does not include any “community projects” – a term of art (formerly known as earmarks) that refers to specific spending in a member’s district.
Zoom out: The short-term funding bill only deals with discretionary spending and won’t affect spending levels for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, according to GOP leadership aides.
- But in the GOP’s separate budget reconciliation package, lawmakers have instructed the Energy and Commerce Committee to cut some $880 billion, which will be very difficult to do if they don’t touch Medicaid.
The bottom line: It was unclear if Friday’s Democratic demands on Medicaid apply to the CR or the bigger tax and spending package that has yet to fully take shape.
- But both House leaders are signaling to their rank-and-file that they expect party loyalty on next week’s vote.