By Katharine Jackson and David Morgan
WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday that he wants to pass a “clean” stopgap funding measure to keep federal agencies operating at current spending levels through September and leave proposed cuts for legislation for the next fiscal year.
During a series of television appearances, Johnson dispelled the notion that cuts identified by billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which Democrats vehemently oppose, could be included in a continuing resolution, known as a CR, intended to avert a partial government shutdown when current funding expires on March 14.
“We’re looking to pass a clean CR to freeze funding at current levels to make sure that the government can stay open,” Johnson told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“We are working hard to do our responsibility to keep the government open. Democrats have to help negotiate this,” he said.
But his comments did not appear to move Congress closer to a deal on government funding, with both Democrats and Republicans pushing back.
“There has been zero outreach from the Trump administration, and House Republicans have walked away from the negotiating table,” the House of Representatives Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said in a statement on Sunday.
Republicans need Democratic support in the Senate, where their 53-47 majority falls short of the 60-vote margin needed to pass most legislation. In the House, Republicans need only a simple majority to pass a stopgap measure and hold a 218-215 advantage over Democrats.
It was not clear, however, if Republicans can muster the necessary support.
“I am a NO on the CR. Congress needs to do its job and pass a conservative budget! CR’s are code for Continued Rubberstamp of fraud, waste, and abuse,” Republican Representative Tony Gonzales wrote on X.
House Republican Don Bacon also voiced opposition, posting: “A continuing resolution is bad for our military and weakens our national security. A CR means new weapons programs cannot get started. A year-long CR means we are not serious about building a military that will deter China, Russia and Iran.”
On Friday, top Democratic appropriators in the Senate and the House of Representatives said Republicans had raised the risk of a government shutdown by insisting on including cuts made by President Donald Trump’s administration in legislation for fiscal year 2025, which ends on September 30.
But Johnson said those cuts would be reserved for legislation to fund the government in fiscal year 2026, which begins on October 1.
“We will actually be able to change the way this is done and incorporate all the extraordinary savings that DOGE is uncovering through fraud, waste and abuse, the other revenues that President Trump is bringing about because of his policies,” Johnson told the Fox News program “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Jeffries took aim at Republican plans to cut spending for social programs such as Medicare to pay for Trump’s border and tax-cut agenda. Democrats unanimously opposed a budget blueprint for advancing the Trump agenda that House Republicans barely managed to passon Tuesday.
“There will be no support for partisan legislation that fails to protect the quality of life of the American people,” Jeffries said.
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson and David Morgan; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Alistair Bell and Leslie Adler)
