Speaker Mike Johnson and President Trump were working on Tuesday to tamp down Republican defections ahead of a vote on a bill to fund the government through Sept. 30 and avert a shutdown at the end of the week.
A vote was expected on Tuesday afternoon on the legislation that would keep last year’s spending levels largely flat, but would increase spending for the military by $6 billion. It would slightly decrease spending overall, because it would not include funds for any projects in lawmakers’ districts or states. And it would force a cut of more than $1 billion from the District of Columbia’s budget for the rest of the fiscal year.
House Democratic leaders are pressing their members to oppose the legislation, arguing that it would provide too much discretion to the Trump administration and the Elon Musk-led effort to drastically reduce federal spending. They have also claimed they cannot support it because it does not protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — although those programs are not funded through the appropriations process.
If all Democrats are present and unite to voting against the bill, House G.O.P. leaders can afford only one Republican defection. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky has already said he would vote no, even as Mr. Trump savages him for opposing the measure and threatens to recruit an opponent to challenge him in the next election.
“Unless I get a lobotomy Monday that causes me to forget what I’ve witnessed the past 12 years, I’ll be a NO on the CR this week,” Mr. Massie wrote on social media, using the shorthand for a continuing resolution to keep funding the government at current spending levels. “It amazes me that my colleagues and many of the public fall for the lie that we will fight another day.”
Many conservative House Republicans have refused in the past to support stopgap funding bills because they keep spending flat without making any cuts. That has forced Republican speakers to rely repeatedly on Democrats for the votes to pass legislation to avoid a shutdown — a strategy that led to the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as speaker in 2023.