House Republicans on Saturday rolled out a 99-page stopgap funding measure covering a little over six months remaining in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, challenging Democrats to accept the bill or risk a partial government shutdown. Current funding runs out March 14, meaning Democrats are likely facing a "yes or no" proposition on the legislation, which would erase billions of dollars' worth of nondefense-related earmarks. Not only are thousands of home-state projects removed for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, the leftover money would be cut out entirely, rather than going back to the agencies to distribute in a different way. Along with some other targeted cuts from fiscal 2024 and rescissions of unspent dollars here and there, the combined effect is to produce a $13 billion overall cut to domestic and foreign aid programs for the duration of the long-term stopgap measure, compared to last year's totals. Lawmakers would be denied a pay raise for the 16th consecutive year, despite some speculation this might finally be the year after an 11th-hour attempt to allow a member cost-of-living adjustment was derailed in December's stopgap fight. Meanwhile, defense would see a roughly $6 billion boost over levels appropriated for last year, GOP aides said, including for shipbuilding costs and military pay increases. That's not counting another $6.6 billion in emergency funds, mainly for shipbuilding, appropriated in the December stopgap law. And Republicans would grant the Pentagon another $8 billion in flexible "transfer authority" to shift money towards priority programs, though that's significantly less than the $30 billion the Trump administration initially sought. Still, after accounting for nondefense cuts, overall spending would drop by $7 billion compared to last year's level, according to the GOP aides. The draft bill "maintains critical services for our constituents and provides the largest pay raise for our brave junior enlisted heroes since President [Ronald] Reagan," House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said in a statement. "With no poison pills or unrelated riders — the bill is simple: extend funding and certainty for the nation." President Donald Trump gave the measure his seal of approval on Saturday, which could be what Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., needs to get it through the House when the chamber votes, likely on Tuesday. While acknowledging the cuts may not go far enough to placate hard-liners who want to see Elon Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" moves codified, Trump said now is not the time for "dissent" in the ranks. "Great things are coming for America, and I am asking you all to give us a few months to get us through to September so we can continue to put the Country’s 'financial house' in order," Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. "Democrats will do anything they can to shut down our Government, and we can’t let that happen." House Democrats were already lining up to oppose the measure, though it wasn't clear if the opposition was unanimous, including from all of the 13 Democratic lawmakers who won in districts Trump carried last November. “I strongly oppose this full-year continuing resolution, which is a power grab for the White House and further allows unchecked billionaire Elon Musk and President Trump to steal from the American people," House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said in a statement. 'Failure to govern' If the measure can pass the House on Tuesday, the Senate will have very little time to act, making further changes to the bill unlikely. The pressure will be on Democrats in that chamber, including those from states that leaned Republican in 2024 — like Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who's up for reelection next year, and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who's already said he'll vote for it — to avert a partial government shutdown. Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., is against the bill, however, calling it a "slush fund" for Trump and Musk in a statement Saturday. She wants a short-term extension to give appropriators more time to negotiate full appropriations bills, though those talks have stalled as Republicans continue to reject Democrats' demand for assurances that lawmakers' "power of the purse" will be respected. Not all Republicans in that chamber are enthusiastic either. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, didn't acknowledge the House GOP-driven stopgap bill text at all in her statement Saturday. She simply argued for avoiding a shutdown, citing the Border Patrol, military servicemembers, airport security screeners and more who'd be forced to work without pay. "Government shutdowns are inherently a failure to govern effectively and have negative consequences all across government," Collins said. "We cannot allow that to occur." While the measure mostly extends current government spending levels — with the exception of earmarked accounts and a few others that would see reductions — the bill includes some "anomalies" to prevent funding disruptions, including several the White House requested. Veterans health care accounts would see a $6 billion boost to prevent a shortfall during the rest of the fiscal year, after a miscalculation in the level of demand for services last year sent lawmakers and the Department of Veterans Affairs scrambling. The money is technically considered "mandatory," so it doesn't factor into the $13 billion nondefense discretionary cut, though it's for similar purposes as traditional discretionary veterans medical spending. At the same time, Democrats pointed out that a nearly $23 billion "advance" appropriation for the VA's fiscal 2026 costs associated with the new toxic-exposure benefits law was missing from the text. "Republicans are zeroing out the Toxic Exposures Fund (to care for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances) on October 1," DeLauro posted on X, formerly Twitter. "They cut $23 billion from their own bill they passed last year. You can’t make this stuff up." However, while House Republicans included the money in their fiscal 2025 Military Construction-VA bill, Senate Democrats in control of that chamber last year did not, despite the Biden administration requesting it. There's nothing in the 2022 toxic exposure law that guarantees the program's eligibility for advance appropriations. Other anomalies The Department of Housing and Urban Development would get around $4.5 billion extra to maintain current services for low-income families that might otherwise lose rental assistance. The Federal Aviation Administration would see higher funding to maintain air traffic control services, and Transportation Security Administration and Coast Guard operations would each get boosts above fiscal 2024 levels. The Federal Emergency Management Agency would get about $2.2 billion more to replenish its disaster relief fund. The Agriculture Department would receive additional funds to prevent families in line for Special Supplemental Nutrition for Women, Infants and Children program aid from being wait-listed, as well as more money for delivery of food packages to low-income seniors and for food safety inspections. A permanent pay boost for wildland firefighters, in line with provisions included in the House's fiscal 2025 Interior-Environment spending bill, is also included. House Republicans said last year when they introduced the measure that the language would provide over $330 million for firefighter raises and help keep them from leaving for higher-paying jobs elsewhere. Health care extenders Those and other anomalies could make the bill more attractive to wavering lawmakers, as well as extensions of several health care provisions that would make it more difficult for their constituents to receive care if they expired. The bill would extend community health center funding, which was to expire with this continuing resolution, through Sept. 30. It would also extend the National Health Service Corps, teaching health centers that operate graduate medical education programs and the special diabetes programs for Type 1 diabetes through Sept. 30, as well as the special diabetes programs for Native Americans. The draft measure would also extend add-on payments for hospitals serving low volumes of patients through Sept. 30 and extend Medicare add-on payments for rural ambulance services through Oct. 1. And it would extend telehealth flexibilities initially enacted temporarily through a COVID-19 relief law as well as extend a program allowing hospitals to treat some patients from their homes through Sept. 30. The spending bill would also delay a reduction to the allotments for Medicaid "disproportionate share" hospitals, which serve higher proportions of uninsured patients, through 2028. The bill does not appear to include a fix to Medicare physician pay cuts, as some doctors had pushed for. Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., was among those pushing for a "doc fix" in the CR. Jessica Wehrman and Peter Cohn contributed to this report.
