GOP funding patch boosts defense and deportations, cuts other programs

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GOP funding patch boosts defense and deportations, cuts other programs

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A seven-month funding patch released by House Republicans Saturday would add billions of dollars in spending for deportations, veterans’ health care and the military while cutting an even greater amount of funding for non-defense programs.

The measure, crafted by Speaker Mike Johnson in coordination with the White House, reflects President Donald Trump’s top policy priorities and heightens a confrontation with Democrats ahead of a Friday midnight shutdown deadline.

House Democratic leaders have already declared themselves firmly opposed to the GOP-written stopgap. They spent weeks trading offers with Republicans to clinch a bipartisan government funding deal before House GOP leaders decided to pivot to the patch through September, which would give Trump substantially more leeway to shift federal cash.

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have been more cautious. If Johnson can get the bill through the House, at least seven of them will need to support it in order to avert a shutdown. The Republican-friendly provisions embedded in the newly released bill could fuel Democratic opposition.

GOP leaders said that the bill would increase defense spending by about $6 billion over current budgets, while non-defense funding would fall by a total of about $13 billion. It fulfills a Trump administration request for additional ICE funding to help carry out deportations. The stopgap also maintains a freeze on more than $20 billion in special IRS funding.

Even before the bill’s release, Democrats called the stopgap a “blank check” for the president, since it does not contain earmarks ensuring federal funding goes to certain projects in their districts or the hundreds of pages in guidance Congress includes alongside regular funding bills. It also gives the Trump administration “new start” power to begin military programs Congress hasn’t approved.

GOP leaders briefed House Republicans on the funding plan Saturday morning. Earmarks would not be in the package, leaders confirmed on the call. Some fiscal hawks also raised concerns that the plan did not reduce spending enough, according to two people granted anonymity to describe the private call.

Johnson and Trump have spent weeks already trying to convince hard-right holdouts to vote for the spending patch — something hard-liners generally never support. They have argued they need the rest of the fiscal year to formulate a plan to codify sweeping cuts being undertaken by the Department of Government Efficiency initiative.

The speaker aims to pass the bill as soon as Tuesday with Republican votes only, and then jam the Senate by adjourning the House and putting the onus on Democrats across the Capitol to back a plan they loathe. Referring to the Senate ********* leader, Johnson argued on Friday that any lapse in government funding would be “a Chuck Schumer shutdown” if Democrats don’t help Republicans clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.

“Democrats are not the ones interested in finding a reasonable solution to fund the government,” a House Republican leadership aide told reporters on a call Saturday, accusing Democrats of using “government funding as a weapon” to stop the Trump administration’s agenda.

“It’s going to be a tough choice now for Democrats to decide if they want to be the ones to shut down the government, something that they’ve long opposed,” added the aide, who was granted anonymity to describe GOP leaders’ thinking.

As expected, the bill doesn’t include any additional disaster aid to address the recent California wildfires or hurricane victims. Nor does it address a looming debt ceiling deadline.

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