Congress Faces Tight Calendar to Avert Shutdown Amid Tensions

Congress has less than a month to strike a bipartisan funding deal and avoid an Oct. 1 shutdown, a task complicated by the increasing animosity between the White House and Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers return to Washington today with 16 scheduled working days before the funding deadline on the night of Sept. 30 — and that assumes the Senate sticks to its plan to work a few Fridays this month.

Top congressional leaders haven’t started bipartisan, bicameral discussions about funding. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) asked Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to meet to discuss a plan in early August, but no meeting has taken place.

Tensions Rise

Bitterness among negotiators may be an even bigger challenge than the condensed timeline, as lawmakers in both parties accuse Trump’s budget chief of breaking the law by clawing back billions of dollars in foreign aid.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought’s plan to block $4.9 billion in foreign aid — using a year-end tactic called “pocket rescissions” — drew barbs from pivotal lawmakers in both parties.

Vought sent Congress a request to rescind the money shortly before the funds expire on Sept. 30, and is using his authority to temporarily block the funds for 45 days in a ploy to wait out the clock. The Government Accountability Office, a congressionally mandated watchdog group, has said the maneuver is illegal.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a pivotal GOP senator who chairs the Appropriations Committee, said the proposal is an attempt to subvert Congress.

“Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law,” Collins said in a statement.

Collins, who voted against a previous $9 billion rescissions package, had unsuccessfully urged the Trump administration to stop sending clawback requests and leave those talks to Congress.

Vought’s aggressive approach to rescinding funds previously approved by Congress had already frustrated Democrats.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) began voting against government-funding bills in July, saying it was no use negotiating a compromise if Vought planned to retroactively cut funds. After Vought’s “pocket rescission” proposal last week, he wrote on X that “any budget deal with Republicans isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”

Stopgap Plans

Lawmakers will have to rely on a short-term stopgap funding bill to avoid an Oct. 1 shutdown, Collins told reporters in Maine in August. It’s common for Congress to fund the government under a continuing resolution into November or December.

In the meantime, lawmakers have to play catch-up after a slow start to funding talks.

Senators have passed three of their 12 annual funding bills, a productive start by the slow-moving chamber’s standards. But the two bills passed by the House represent an unusually slow pace.

Collins and House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) discussed crafting a bicameral agreement on some of the bills they’ve already passed, “in the hopes that we can get them approved when we’re back in session, as soon as possible,” Collins told Maine reporters, according to a transcript provided by her office.

Markups, Floor Votes

The House has passed its Defense (H.R. 4016) and Military Construction-VA (H.R. 3944) funding bills. The Senate has passed its Agriculture-FDA, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-VA bills in a package (H.R. 3944).

House leaders also aim to pass their Energy and Water funding bill (H.R. 4553) as soon as this week.

Lawmakers also need to keep releasing funding bills and moving them through their committees. House Republicans released their Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill late Monday and will hold a subcommittee markup today. They’re planning for a full committee markup next week, Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.), an appropriator, said.

House appropriators are set for a full committee vote tomorrow on their Financial Services and General Government bill.

And senators plan to mark up their State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill this month, Collins said in a statement.