Congress has until March 14 to avert a shutdown.
WASHINGTON—Republicans have released their proposal for extending government funding, but it faces hurdles in both chambers of Congress.
The 100-page continuing resolution (CR)—Capitol Hill parlance for a stopgap funding bill—would primarily extend funding past the March 14 deadline to Sept. 30.
But it also contains provisions that aren’t directly related to extending government funding, including the addition of some new defense and deportation appropriations, and some spending cuts.
While CRs generally rely on Democrats’ support to pass, given many Republicans’ hardline opposition to such measures in the past, Democrats have indicated that they won’t help this time—raising questions about whether the measure can pass both chambers.
President Donald Trump has backed the plan, as Republicans’ primary focus remains on crafting their budget legislation to implement his agenda.
Here’s what to know about the Republicans’ CR proposal with four days left until a shutdown.
New Funding, Spending Cuts
In addition to extending government funding, the CR would include new appropriations related to the Department of Defense and to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while providing for some spending cuts.
Speaking about the bill on a March 8 call with reporters, House Republican leadership staff said the CR would allow for $892.5 billion in defense spending, a slight increase over last year. It provides about $708 billion for nondefense spending, a $13 billion reduction from the previous year.
Increases to ICE funding, which could help Trump in his efforts to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, are primarily related to a years-long operating shortfall in the agency going back to President Joe Biden’s administration, staffers said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on March 2 that the spending cuts implemented by the bill are related to ongoing efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to identify potentially wasteful or fraudulent spending within the federal government.
Johnson said the bill will “freeze funding at current levels to make sure that the government can stay open while we begin to incorporate all these savings that we’re finding through the DOGE effort and these other sources of revenue that President Trump’s policies are bringing to the table.”
Overall, staffers said this package provides $7 billion in savings over current funding levels.
Republican leadership has referred to the package as a “clean” CR, describing a CR without extraneous provisions.
By Joseph Lord
