With time running short to avoid a government shutdown at the end of next week, President Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson are pitching Republicans on a stopgap bill that would keep federal dollars flowing at current levels through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
The idea is something of a surrender by Republicans, as it would maintain spending at levels enacted under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and does not account for the cuts being made by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. But the president and speaker are embracing it as a way to avoid a politically damaging shutdown fight among Republicans while still affording Mr. Trump wide latitude to slash spending on his own in defiance of Congress.
“I am working with the GREAT House Republicans on a Continuing Resolution to fund the Government until September to give us some needed time to work on our Agenda,” Mr. Trump wrote Wednesday on social media. “Conservatives will love this Bill, because it sets us up to cut Taxes and Spending in Reconciliation, all while effectively FREEZING Spending this year.”
It is unclear whether the plan could pass by midnight on March 14 and avert a shutdown. Mr. Trump’s appeal was aimed at soothing far-right House members who traditionally have opposed government spending bills, particularly stopgap measures that lump together money for every federal program without reducing funding for any of them.
He hosted hard-liners at the White House on Tuesday afternoon and encouraged them to support the extension, and some skeptics emerged saying they were considering doing so. They noted that Mr. Trump had already shown a willingness to ignore spending legislation and pursue deep cuts on his own.
But members of both parties on the appropriations committees in the House and Senate are deeply opposed, arguing that it would starve some departments of needed funding and cede too much power over spending to the executive branch.