The US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. DC, Wednesday, October 8, 2025 (Photo: Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – On the 21st day of the federal government shutdown, it seemed that the political tensions and policy differences that contributed to it were likely to doom any chance the GOP-controlled Congress had of finding the bipartisanship needed to pass the dozen or so bills needed to fund the government.
While it’s very much inside baseball, failure to approve the 12 appropriations bills will block lawmakers from submitting requests for funding for crucial projects in their home states, called appropriations funds, before they become law – such as highway construction, water systems, educational projects, research facilities and more.
A year-long stopgap spending bill would also create major headaches for departments across the government that have faced challenges adjusting to a series of stopgap spending bills that have funded the government over the past year, even without the turmoil of layoffs and defunding implemented by the Trump administration.
The full-year spending bills also give Congress the best chance to exercise its constitutional authority over government spending and are intended to stimulate debate about where the taxes Americans pay can assist the country most.
Bypassing this process and avoiding challenging conversations about where funding is most needed and where it is not, absolve lawmakers of a core professional responsibility – securing money to assist their constituents live better lives.
On Tuesday, Democrats and Republicans failed to reach any agreement on reopening the government, which means has been closed from October 1. House members are not in session, and the last vote took place on September 19. Senate voted unsuccessfully 11 times on the same House-passed transient spending bill, failing to obtain the 60 votes needed to pass it.
“Exceptionally harmful” effect of another makeshift solution
Senate Appropriations Chairman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she opposes using a so-called continuing resolution for the rest of the fiscal year instead of reaching an agreement on year-round government funding bills.
“The impact of another annual review would be extremely damaging to federal programs, particularly the Department of Defense, and should be avoided at all costs,” Collins said.
Congress used three successive resolutions to keep the government funded in the last fiscal year, which ended on September 30.
Over the past few decades, lawmakers have invoked stopgap spending bills several times to fund the government throughout the fiscal year.
However, according to Congress, for two years in a row, starting in the overdue 1970s, transient spending laws were not applied report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
Senate Republicans lunch with Trump
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-D., said after lunch at the White House with President Donald Trump and other GOP senators that talks on year-round government funding bills could only begin after the shutdown ends.
“We want a normal appropriation process. We want to give them the opportunity to sit down and sort out some of the issues they want to talk about,” Thune said. “But that can’t happen until the government reopens.”
North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven, chairman of the agriculture appropriations subcommittee, said year-long passage of the resolution is “absolutely” possible if the process doesn’t start gaining momentum soon.
Hoeven, however, declined to say whether he would vote for the stopgap spending bill, which would invalidate the appropriations process for the second year in a row. And he said he was “of course” concerned about the negative effects of the resolution continuing throughout the year.
“I don’t want to get ahead of this process. I just want to open the government and get back to normal,” Hoeven said.
Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee and senior owner, said it would take real leadership in both chambers to get any change on the year-round bills. He also said he was strongly opposed to the year-long transient spending bill.
“I think if we vote for a year-round CR, we will be completely abdicating, under the Constitution, our responsibility to control the budget,” Reed said.
South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, who sits on the Appropriations Committee, said he “cannot support a year-long CR.”
“We’ve done so much work, and now it’s just a matter of whether Democrats will let us bring them to the floor,” Rounds said, referring to the year-long defense spending bill that failed to advance last week.
Rounds said he thinks Democrats are trying to find a way to end the government shutdown, which would potentially allow work on year-round bills to resume.
“I think they made a very serious strategic mistake when they decided to jump ahead and shut down the government,” Rounds said. “And now they don’t have an elegant way out, and that’s a problem.”
Process, interrupted
Typically, by now, Republicans and Democrats would agree on how much to spend on defense and domestic programs and divide that roughly $1.8 trillion into a dozen full-year government spending.
Lawmakers charged with writing bills on these appropriations would begin meeting to determine spending levels and policy differences between the original House bills and the original Senate bills.
All of this has been put on hold due to the shutdown and may never even happen, potentially prompting Republicans to write a stopgap spending bill for the rest of the year.
Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt, chairwoman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, said she wants Democrats to vote to reopen the government so she can get back to work on the year-long appropriations bill.
“I want to do my job, and that’s why I’m so frustrated that we weren’t able to start work on the appropriations bills on Thursday,” Britt said, also referring to the defense bill. “I think it was incredibly shortsighted for my Democratic colleagues to vote down this decision because this is an opportunity for us to actually do the work for the American people. I believe we should do the job, not pass the buck.”
Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, the top Democrat on the state-foreign appropriations subcommittee, said he remains “hopeful about the appropriations process.”
“Obviously we have to get through the recess, but there is a bipartisan desire to do something and avoid a year-long CR,” Schatz said, adding that it is challenging to get anything done when the House is not in session.
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the agriculture appropriations subcommittee, opposes using a year-long resolution to negotiate bipartisan versions of year-round government funding bills.
“I’m concerned about the full-year CR and I really think we need to go back to the appropriations process and finalize these bills,” Shaheen said. “I think there is interest in this on both sides of the aisle.”
Uncharted waters
Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the top Democrat on the Labor, HHS and Education appropriations subcommittee, said GOP leaders will have to accept regular concessions in bipartisan negotiations if they want anything to get through the upper chamber.
“I think, first of all, we need to really make sure that Speaker (Mike) Johnson realizes that the only way to make progress on appropriations and other issues is through a bipartisan approach,” Baldwin said. “This is the only way to pass matters requiring 60 votes in the Senate.”
Baldwin said that means both chambers should employ the total spending level that received bipartisan support in the Senate Appropriations Committee, rather than the lower spending level used by the House panel.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, was much more gloomy than many of his colleagues.
“I think you’re living in a world that doesn’t exist,” Murphy told States Newsroom. “I think 2025 is completely different than any previous year. Our democracy is literally dying under our feet. The president is embroiled in illegality and corruption on a massive scale, and nothing we have done here in the past will set a precedent for what will happen in the future. The House of Representatives has never boycotted Washington for a month and a half. The majority party has never said no negotiations with the minority party. So I think we’re in a really uncharted part of the water and nothing can happen until House Republicans come back and Senate Republicans decide to negotiate.”
