As House Republicans look to pass a "clean" stopgap funding bill ahead of the Oct. 1 government shutdown deadline, Democrats are reportedly unhappy that their GOP counterparts aren't including the major concessions on healthcare that they've called for.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Monday that the issue is "a December policy issue, not a September funding issue."
According to The Hill, Democrats have been pushing for lawmakers to address the end-of-year expiration of Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, as well as changes to Medicaid that were included in President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Congress passed earlier this summer.
Amid the looming shutdown deadline, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., took to social media platform X on Monday morning to dispute the idea of a "clean" funding bill.
"Partisan legislation that continues the unprecedented Republican assault on healthcare is not a clean spending bill. It's a dirty one," Jeffries wrote.
The partisan showdown over funding the government could boil over in the coming days as lawmakers on Capitol Hill race to pass a continuing resolution (CR) and avert a shutdown.
The Hill reported that Republican House leadership hoped to pass a stopgap bill by the end of the week, before lawmakers leave Washington, D.C., in observance of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.
However, Johnson told reporters that discussions had turned to congressional safety following last week's fatal shooting of conservative leader Charlie Kirk in Utah.
"We don't have [text] yet because we're trying to resolve this," Johnson said Monday when asked about a White House request for $58 million to ramp up security for government officials.
"It is kind of a late-breaking development, and that $58 million is for the executive and judicial branches," Johnson said. "We have to protect our judges and those who serve in those two branches."
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that his conference has "a lot of members who are interested" in additional funding for security.
"The CR will have a few anomalies in it," Thune added.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said that the White House request may be included in the bill, considering the "level of anxiety" members have felt since Kirk was shot.
Still, the government funding bill is "going to be by and large clean," Thune said, "which is why the Democrats ought to be willing to vote for it."
Despite the GOP message, Democrats are reportedly signaling they're not interested in passing a proposal that does not address their concerns.
On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., ripped Trump and the Republicans, blaming any potential shutdown on what he said was the majority party's refusal to negotiate.
"Our position remains this: We want to keep the government open by engaging in bipartisan negotiations where we can address some of the grave harm Donald Trump has caused to our health care system and help Americans with the cost of living," Schumer said from the Senate floor, according to The Hill. "We haven't seen that to date."
He added that Johnson and Thune have "refused to have any conversations" about the ACA subsidies and claimed that the former has politicized the process of funding the government.
"Total, total partisan proposal," Schumer said. "If one side refuses to negotiate, they are the ones causing the shutdown."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.