A MART脥NEZ, HOST:
Over the weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a plan to keep the federal government running through September.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
They're doing what lawmakers have done again and again and again, and again, in recent years. Instead of passing the annual 12 spending bills in what's called regular order with a lot of choices and compromises, Republicans want to largely keep the government running on autopilot under last year's budget numbers for a while, while they discuss all this. Congress needs to approve something by Friday or face another government shutdown.
MART脥NEZ: NPR political correspondent Susan Davis is here now. So Republicans control Congress and the White House. So, Sue, why couldn't they come up with a plan to pass the annual spending bills instead of this stopgap?
SUSAN DAVIS, BYLINE: You know, for Republicans, that would've been like choosing the path of most resistance. Passing all 12 of those bills usually requires an incredible amount of party unity and would also have likely required bipartisan negotiations with Democrats. Republicans aren't all that interested in that path right now. They really don't want to burn all of this political capital on spending bills because the party is way more focused on passing a separate budget bill to extend President Trump's tax cuts. That is the priority focus for the Republican Party over the next several months because they expire at the end of the year. But even the stopgap path is going to test party unity. Speaker Johnson has never been able to pass these spending bills or stopgaps without some Democratic support, and it's unclear if he's going to be able to do it this week either.
MART脥NEZ: Yeah, Democrats were purposefully cut from this process. Are they going to support it?
DAVIS: Well, the top House Democratic leaders over the weekend came out and said they're going to oppose it. This is unlike past deals where Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has helped deliver the votes to avoid these shutdowns. If House Democrats remain unified against it, the speaker is essentially going to need unanimous support from within his own party, and that's going to be tough.
MART脥NEZ: That sounds like a place where the president could step in, though.
DAVIS: Yeah, I mean, President Trump is certainly trying to keep pressure on Republican rank and file. In a social media post over the weekend, he was asking for, quote, "no dissent on this." And there's a sign he might get it. One of those traditional hard-line conservatives who likes to vote against these types of spending bills - that's Texas Congressman Chip Roy. He's also a member of the Freedom Caucus. He's indicated that he will support it, which is a good sign for the speaker.
MART脥NEZ: So considering all this, Sue, I mean, how likely is a shutdown on Friday?
DAVIS: You know, I think it's going to be pretty clear early in the week. The House is expected to vote on Tuesday, and if they can't pass a bill, the shutdown becomes exponentially more likely by Friday. If they can pass that hurdle, a handful of Democrats are still going to be necessary to get it through the Senate. At least one of those Democrats, Pennsylvania's John Fetterman, has indicated he'll be on board. It's unclear if others will be. And Trump is already trying to put the blame on Democrats if there is a shutdown. But I think that's going to be a bit of a hard sell when it's his party that controls all the levers here and have also made clear that Democrats didn't have a seat at the table.
MART脥NEZ: For Democrats, though, what might they want in this deal?
DAVIS: I mean, Democrats are trying to get language into any deal that is going to make it harder for the Trump administration to cut off funding for things that Congress has already appropriated money for, obviously in response to things like cutting off funding for USAID. They wanted to tie the hands of this ongoing DOGE effort, and that was obviously going to be a nonstarter for this White House. I also think it tells you, A, that as long as Republicans are in control of Congress, they're not going to be putting up much of a fight over the Trump administration's push to play a bigger role here in deciding what money gets spent and what gets cut, which as Steve noted at the top, this is a power that traditionally is supposed to be decided by Congress. And they're willing to cede much of that power in this moment more to the White House and President Trump.
MART脥NEZ: All right, that's NPR political correspondence Susan Davis. Susan, thank you.
DAVIS: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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