America's Talking - Senate rejects both Republican and Democrat govt funding stopgaps, risking a shutdown

Episode Date: September 21, 2025

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Senate failed to pass either Democrats’ or Republicans’ government funding proposals Friday to prevent a government shutdown. Senators have now left town for a week-long recess, leaving only two days when they return to pass some kind of funding stopgap before the government shuts down on Oct. 1. Republicans’ Continuing Resolution would have extended current government funding levels until Nov. 21, buying lawmakers time to pass all 12 annual appropriations bills for fiscal year 2026. It also included $30 million for additional lawmaker security and $58 million for U.S. Supreme Court judges and members of the executive branch. Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxRead more: https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_aa5086d0-8a97-494e-88c6-b5f79701d058.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to America's Talking, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAelib, chief content officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. With less than two weeks left in the federal fiscal year, Congress still has a lot of work to do to avoid a partial government shutdown on October 1st. Minority Democrats propose their own more expensive continuing budget resolution this week, as majority Republicans want to pass a mostly clean continuing resolution that keep spending levels, largely the same, though adds extra security spending for lawmakers in the wake of last week's assassination of Charlie Kirk. Joining me to discuss this is the Center Square's congressional reporter, Teres Boudreau. Teres, tell us about the latest developments. Yeah, so it's really coming down to the wire at this point. This past week, Republicans released their continuing resolution, so their government funding stop gap. And as you said, it essentially keeps, government funding across federal agencies for programs on cruise control. But it also does include like an extra, something like 30 million for lawmakers security and somewhere around 60 million for Pentagon security.

And those are both very bipartisan things. So it's a, you know, it's free of the partisan policy riders. It's just, all right, we're going to keep government funding as it is while lawmakers work to finish all of the 12. appropriations bills, which they're supposed to do every year. They usually don't, but this just buys them time, essentially. So Democrats, they don't actually have a problem with anything that's in the CR, since there's not really much in it. It's what's not in the CR that they have a problem with. So they have wanted to use the CR as a vehicle of healthcare policy, essentially. So there's some extensions to tax credits, healthcare tax credits.

They want to basically undo everything in the one big beautiful, not everything, sorry, they want to undo everything related to health care reforms in the one big beautiful bill. And so they released their own CR, their counterproposal. And there's a lot in it and it's very costly and it's very partisan. So there's almost no way it's going to get through the house or, of the Senate, but it is a show of opposition to the Republican CR. I agree with you. The Democrats plan really has no chance. But with less than two weeks left, I mean, how many votes do they still need to have to make sure that they do avoid that

partial government shutdown? I mean, it's not just a single vote in the House and then a single vote in the Senate, right? It's a series of votes in the House and a series of votes in the that. Right. Yeah, no, that's true. I mean, the Republicans, they control both chambers. And so Johnson can afford to lose two Republican votes in the House theoretically and still get the CR across the finish line. The problem is the Senate. Republicans also control that, but they only have 53 people and they need 60 votes to pass any funding stopgap. So they're going to need, assuming that there are no Republicans who have any problem whatsoever with the CR, which, spoiler, there are a couple who do have a problem with it for different reasons.

Assuming that all of them voted for it, that would mean that Republicans would still need at least seven Democratic votes. So again, with the introduction of that CR that Democrats have, which different estimates, there's one from the committee for a responsible federal budget, which says that the entire CRC could cost up to $1.4 trillion over the next 10 years. And then Congressional Budget Office says that just some of the health care provisions in it alone, because again, it includes a laundry list of, you know, favored policies, essentially, that just alone extending the Obamacare premium tax credits that are set to expire permanently

would cost somewhere around like 300 and something million over the next 10 years. So there's a lot in it that a lot of Democrats like, but there are a lot of Democrats that probably don't support it, but they also don't want to support Republicans continuing resolution. I know that Senator John Federman from Pennsylvania has said that he will vote for Republicans continuing resolution because, again, there's a shutdown at all of this, right? So there's a lot of Republicans are asking Democrats, hey, what's the meaning of this? I mean, this is our, you know, the Republican CR is just going to keep the government funding level for about seven weeks while we figure out the rest of the normal, proper annual appropriations bills. And they're accusing Democrats of using it as, you know, some bargaining chip when it should just be this easy, this easy pass. So in terms of votes, it's the main question is whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune can get enough Democrats on board. Because, again, through the House, that should be pretty easy.

But in the Senate, when you have Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who's, you know, one of the people who has advocated for the Democrat proposal, I mean, it really just, you know, who knows how many are going to stick with him and say, no, we're going to stand by our health care policies and try to push those through. Or, you know, who's going to be like Senator John Federer and say, we just need to prevent a government shutdown. Let's save all of that stuff, all that health care stuff for later. You know, no lawmaker obviously wants a government shutdown. I mean, that's, if you're blamed for a government shutdown as a party, that's political, a lot of political damage. So right now, it's kind of they're just these two proposals that are out there and both sides are saying the other isn't working bipartisanly. And so they're going to be at fault for a government shutdown. But, you know, ultimately the American people decide who they think is going to blame.

And ultimately, the American people don't want to shut down. So, you know, to see what happens there. This all just sort of reminds me of the movie Groundhogs Day, Terrez, regardless of who's got the majority party in Congress, we keep coming to this point where it seems like every several months there is a looming government shutdown because Congress can't get its act together and pass not a continuing. resolution, but actually new appropriations bills. In the few seconds we have left, Terrez, is there any hope for Congress to get put this behind them and actually pass actual annual fiscal budget bills? Well, if they get this Republican CR passed, and then they have about seven weeks to finish the rest of the appropriations bills, to get all 12 of them through the House and through the Senate, then if that happens, then yes, the,

federal government would be fully funded for first time in a while, like a year. Yeah. Well, thank you for joining us today, Terrez. Listeners can keep up with your coverage on this back and forth appropriations bill at thecentersquare.com.