White House seeks stopgap bill through Jan. 31 to avoid government shutdown
Lawmakers must pass a comprehensive spending plan for fiscal 2026 or approve a continuing resolution before Oct. 1 to avoid a government shutdown.
The Trump administration is calling on Congress to pass a four-month stopgap spending bill, in order to avoid a government shutdown, according to congressional appropriators.
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said in a statement Tuesday that the Trump administration is seeking a continuing resolution through Jan. 31, 2026.
The administration is seeking a longer CR than some lawmakers previously considered. But the House and Senate aren’t close to getting 12 spending bills for fiscal 2026 through the normal appropriations process.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters in a press conference on Tuesday that “we have not done the appropriations process the way it is legally supposed to work in a long, long time around here.” Lawmakers have to pass a comprehensive spending plan for fiscal 2026, or approve a continuing resolution before Oct. 1 to avoid a government shutdown.
Johnson added that a government shutdown would be “dangerous and harmful to millions of Americans,” and that it “is not the answer” to unresolved differences between congressional Democrats and Republicans.
“If Democrats are willing to work with us, we have our sleeves rolled up and we want to do this in good faith. We just have to think responsibly how to spend less money than we did last year. And if they’re willing to do that — and it’s incumbent upon all of us to do it with the high national debt — we’re open to that,” Johnson said. “But the ultimate question of whether there’s going to be a government shutdown at the end of the month is going to be up to congressional Democrats, and that’s just the way it is.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that “Democrats don’t want to see a government shutdown, but avoiding one means Republicans have to show they are serious about having a real, substantive, serious negotiation.”
“If Republicans choose the path of, ‘Do what we say or go to hell,’ then they will be the ones paving the bitter road that leads towards a government shutdown,” Schumer said.
The Office of Management and Budget recently told Congress that it won’t be spending $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid, in a rarely used procedure called a “pocket rescission.”Some congressional Democrats have pointed to the administration’s rescissions as a major hurdle to reaching a spending deal with Republicans before the start of fiscal 2026.
“Delaying the critical work of funding the government until the end of January is only step one in President Trump and [OMB Director] Russ Vought’s plan to never fund it at all,” DeLauro said in a statement.
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