Trump’s call for a continuing resolution comes as the GOP looks to pass Trump’s agenda with a bill through a process called reconciliation.
President Donald Trump has come out in favor of funding the government at current levels ahead of a March 14 deadline.
“Joe Biden left us a total MESS. The Budget from last YEAR is still not done. We are working very hard with the House and Senate to pass a clean, temporary government funding Bill (‘CR’) to the end of September. Let’s get it done!” he wrote in a post on Truth Social on Feb. 27.
CR stands for continuing resolution, which would fund the government without increasing or decreasing funding for agencies and other government initiatives.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has pushed for a CR, telling reporters it is the “most reasonable thing to do to ensure that the government is not shut down.”
When it comes to the Democrat side in the House, House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), not House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), is running point for the minority.
“Rosa DeLauro continues to lead the appropriations discussions on behalf of House Democrats,” Jeffries told reporters on Feb. 27.
“She’s at the table. She’s got a working relationship with Tom Cole, and let’s see how those negotiations proceed.”
Cole is the House Appropriations Committee chairman.
When it comes to whether Democrats would support a CR, Jeffries demurred.
“In terms of any subsequent consideration of a year-long continuing resolution, that’s a conversation that we’ll have at the appropriate moment with the entirety of the House Democratic caucus,” he said.
Although it would only take a simple majority to get a CR passed in the House, whether it would pass the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate is to be determined.
“You can increase some spending, you can decrease some spending,” Johnson said. “You can add language that says, for example, the dramatic changes that have been made to USAID would be reflected in the ongoing spending.
“It would be a clean CR, mostly, I think, but with some of those changes to adapt to the new realities here.”
