House Republicans unveiled their long-awaited, full-year spending deal on Saturday just days before government funding is set to expire on Friday, with the support of President Donald Trump and, surprisingly, hard-line conservatives.
The 99-page continuing resolution provides for $892.5 billion in defense spending and around $708 billion in non-defense spending, both of which sit below the caps in fiscal year 2025. Defense spending is moderately increasing from 2024 levels by around $8 billion, while non-defense spending is decreasing by around $13 billion, per the text.
The “clean” continuing resolution, which allows the government to mostly freeze current spending levels, will extend funding until Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2025. House GOP leaders see the CR as a temporary fix to keep government operations open after bipartisan congressional appropriators were unable to come to an agreement on a topline number for a bigger funding package.
The bill also includes some anomalies requested by the White House, including one involving an additional $485 million in funding for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a total of $9.9 billion, as Trump continues to push for severe crackdown on border crossings and deportations of illegal immigrants. A $20.2 billion rescission for the Internal Revenue Service is also reflected in the bill, House Republican leadership staff told reporters on Saturday.
There will also be a $6 billion increase in funding for veterans’ healthcare. But staff said there won’t be any community projects in the bill, nor any disaster aid or emergency funding.
In wake of a hurricane on the East Coast and wildfires in California, there had been a bipartisan push to place a supplemental bill on the House floor to provide disaster assistance to states hit by the natural disasters. For a time, leadership weighed attaching disaster aid to the CR as a motivation to get Democrats on board, but that did not end up being the case.
House Democratic leadership accused Republicans of putting up a “partisan continuing resolution” that “rips away life-sustaining healthcare and retirement benefits from everyday Americans.” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), and Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) said Medicaid is our “redline” — but House GOP leadership staff have noted that there will be no cuts that affect Medicaid and Medicare in the continuing resolution.
House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), came out strongly opposed to the continuing resolution in a statement shortly after the text was released. She called it a “power grab for the White House” and accused Republicans of handing “a blank check to Elon Musk.”
DeLauro has repeatedly blamed the GOP for “walking away from the negotiating table,” while Republicans have said that Democrats’ requests to place limitations on Trump’s executive authority was a “non-starter.” Appropriators are typically against CRs and instead advocate for the passage of the 12 appropriations bills, but that task has proven difficult due to party difference and infighting in the GOP.
“By essentially closing the book on negotiations for full-year funding bills that help the middle class and protect our national security, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have handed their power to an unelected billionaire,” DeLauro said, referring to Elon Musk, who is now an adviser to Trump.
Surprisingly, hard-line conservatives are in favor of the continuing resolution despite typically being opposed to the stop-gap spending strategy in the past. Their support for the CR comes after a handful of them met with Trump at the White House, where the president encouraged their support on the measure to avoid a government shutdown.
With a razor-thin majority, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) can only afford to lose one vote to pass the CR along party lines without Democratic support. But Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has already signaled he will vote against the CR because it would not include the cuts identified by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-TX) also said he was a “NO” on the CR last week.
Though Jeffries has insisted the caucus is united against the Republican CR, it is likely that some conservative Democrats in swing districts or districts won by Trump in 2024 could vote for the spending deal. The minority leader said discussions on how Democrats will respond to the CR will happen during their weekly caucus meeting on Tuesday.
GOP MUST CUT MEDICARE AND MEDICAID TO MEET BUDGET TARGET: CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
Leadership staff said Trump worked closely to coordinate with House leaders on the CR — a change of pace for the president. Trump himself said last year, when he was a presidential candidate, that he was opposed to clean CRs.
The CR is expected to go to the Rules Committee on Monday, with a vote set for final passage on Tuesday.
