Avoiding a late December government shutdown in 2024, a month before then President-elect Donald Trump was to take office, a last-minute deal was reached to keep operations running. Congress must approve the spending agreement by March 14, or else the government will shut down.
In February, House Speaker Mike Johnson created a budget blueprint through the House, calling for cutting taxes by up to $4.5 trillion and sets a goal for cutting federal spending by $2 trillion. The blueprint was approved in a vote of 217-215, with all Republicans but one voting in favor of the resolution.
According to Inc., “The bill passed by the House would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and implement new ones as well as allocate $300 billion for defense and border security, raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion over two years, and add almost $3 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years.” The Senate passed a scaled-back version of the bill, requiring a series of negotiations before an agreement is signed.
One of the biggest concerns for the Democrats right now are the cuts being carried out by the Elon Musk run Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In a X post made late February by DOGE, they shared that “the Federal Government exceeded $100M in annual rent savings through cancellations of 250+ vacant/underutilized leases totaling 3M+ square feet. With ~7,250 current leases, there is plenty of available office space for the current workforce.” Due to some actions as of recent, Democrats are advocating for restrictions to be placed on DOGE.
However, many Republicans are against the idea of DOGE having any sort of restrictions. In a letter signed by a handful of senators and state representatives, Republicans warned Senate Majority Leader John Thurne and House Speaker Johnson to not offer a deal that includes restrictions on DOGE.
It reads, “we understand that Democrats are insisting that any government funding deal include policy provisions that would tie the hands of the President and prohibit DOGE from continuing their efforts to promote transparency and accountability in government spending … We will not support a government funding package that would be weaponized against President Trump at the very moment he is seeking to make good on the promises he made to the American people.”
Democratic Senator Patty Murray told reporters at NBC, “We are close on top-line spending. We need to know Republicans are willing to work with us to protect Congress’ power of the purse — and I welcome any and all ideas they may have on how we can work together to do just that.”
Adding on, Senator Murray established that this is “the absolute bare minimum, and it is frankly not asking a whole lot. Republicans should not be so eager to let Elon Musk cut off cancer research or clean energy jobs in their districts. They should not follow Elon towards a shutdown.”
