Disagreements in Congress over President Donald Trump's federal budget approach are challenging the tradition of bipartisan funding agreements and increasing the possibility of a partial government shutdown this fall.
Republicans, following a White House request, moved to rescind $9 billion in previously approved congressional funding.
Some Republican lawmakers have discussed the possibility of bypassing the Senate’s usual 60-vote threshold for passing funding bills.
"Republicans in Congress are bowing down to Donald Trump and ratifying some of his worst efforts," Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a floor speech outlining her unwillingness to cooperate on government funding without a Republican agreement not to rescind the money later.
"The Trump administration is saying, loud and clear, Donald Trump makes all the decisions."
The budgeting process has long been strained. For almost three decades lawmakers have failed to pass the 12 bills that are meant to detail the government's discretionary spending and the government has partially shut down 14 times since 1981 as lawmakers have missed deadlines.
The annual battle over discretionary spending involves less than a third of the roughly $6.75 trillion federal budget, with funding for programs like building roads and supporting schools. The rest is mandatory spending including Social Security, Medicare and roughly $1 trillion of financing costs for the nation's $36 trillion in debt.
As the Senate prepares to leave Washington for a month-long summer recess, Republican leaders have said they would hold Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer and House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries responsible if a shutdown occurs.
"If we end up with a Schumer shutdown at the end of the year, the Democrats are going to own that," Senate Majority Leader John Thune told a news conference.
The last government shutdown, which stretched over 35 days from late 2018 into early 2019, occurred during Trump's first term in office. Polling at the time showed that voters blamed Republicans for the disruption.
Traditionally, government funding negotiations have involved bipartisan agreement, though recent years have seen increasing partisanship from both sides.
"Budgeting is hard. Budgeting is governing. And the way things have been so politicized and partisanized, it makes it almost impossible for Congress to legislate effectively," said William Hoagland, a former Senate Republican aide and fiscal legislation veteran who is now at the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank.
This time, the challenge is affected by the approach of Trump budget director Russell Vought, who has withheld some congressionally appropriated funds and sought to defund certain programs.
Trump has also proposed a fiscal 2026 budget that calls for $163 billion in spending cuts.
"We all want to pursue a bipartisan, bicameral appropriations process," Schumer told reporters. "The Republicans are making it extremely difficult to do that."
Hardline conservative House Republicans have been discussing the possibility of setting a new precedent for partisanship by using the parliamentary process known as budget reconciliation to pass full-year 2026 funding legislation to reopen government agencies at lower spending levels in the event of a shutdown.
The tactic was most recently used to pass Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill earlier this month. Democrats also used it under President Joe Biden to pass his domestic agenda.
"It's not a serious discussion yet. But it might be as we get closer to September 30," said Representative Andy Harris, chair of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus.
Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has floated the possibility of further reconciliation packages, said they have not considered the idea. Some traditional-minded Republicans have rejected it out of hand.
"That's a bad idea," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole said. "It means everything has to be partisan all the time. Appropriations, historically, is bipartisan."
But hardliners who have seen their demands for deep spending cuts frustrated over the years say Republicans could need an alternative to the usual bipartisan path.
"We'd all prefer that you do the appropriations process. So, we should keep trying to get that done. But if we can't, and we have to look at something else, we'll look at something else," said Representative Jim Jordan, a leading hardliner.
"Whether we'll do that or not, I don't know. But it's already happened," the Ohio Republican said when asked about reconciliation as a way to reopen shuttered federal agencies.
Experts say using reconciliation as a vehicle to reopen shuttered federal agencies may not be feasible, given that Congress would first need to pass a budget resolution that could take weeks or even months to craft.
But hardliners say they are aware of that issue.
"It's hard to do reconciliation at the last minute. That's the problem," said Representative Warren Davidson.
Asked if the potentially long lead time ruled out its use, the Ohio Republican replied: "I hope not. We're trying to make sure it doesn't die."
Reuters contributed to this report
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