Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday released a stopgap bill that would keep government funding flowing past a Sept. 30 deadline and boost spending on security for federal officials, effectively daring Democrats to block the package and force a shutdown.
The legislation would keep federal spending mostly at current levels through Nov. 21 and provide $58 million in emergency funding the White House requested to bolster security for the executive branch and the Supreme Court after the assassination of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. It also would include $30 million to fortify security for members of Congress.
House G.O.P. leaders said they aimed for a vote on the floor on Friday.
Its release intensified pressure on Democrats who have said they cannot accept a spending bill that merely extends current funding levels without additional health care spending they have yet to specify.
Republicans are effectively trying to jam Democrats in a replay of the fight over government funding that played out in March. Back then, Senate Democrats allowed a stopgap spending measure to move forward to avert a shutdown, arguing that blocking it would only cede more power to President Trump to steer federal funding however he saw fit while the government was closed.
That move blindsided and infuriated House Democrats, who had unanimously voted against the bill, and provoked a fierce backlash from the party base, which had demanded lawmakers shut down Mr. Trump’s government.
This time, the Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, have said their members will not support a spending extension unless they receive concessions from Republicans on health care.
“It takes 60 Senate votes for anything to pass,” Mr. Schumer said on the Senate floor, urging Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, to negotiate. “And to get those votes, he needs some input from Democrats. And we particularly want to talk about people’s high costs, particularly in health care, created by the Republican ‘big, beautiful bill.’”
Mr. Johnson said on Tuesday that there was “zero chance” he would attach either an extension of Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year or a reversal of the cuts to Medicaid put forward in their sprawling tax bill.
Mr. Thune told reporters on Tuesday that the expiring health subsidies “will be addressed,” but not as part of the stopgap spending bill.
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times.
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