Senate GOP close to cutting deal to avoid shutdown

Senate Senate GOP close to cutting deal to avoid shutdown Comments: by Alexander Bolton - 07/31/26 6:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Alexander Bolton - 07/31/26 6:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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Senate Republicans are close to cutting a deal with their Democratic counterparts to avoid a government shutdown and rein in a proposed rule from the White House budget office that would give Trump appointees more power to withhold congressional appropriations, according to senators familiar with the negotiations.

GOP lawmakers are desperate to avoid another shutdown before the election but any proposal to quash President Trump’s ability to hold up federal money from going to programs the administration deems “woke” could draw the president’s opposition and scuttle a funding deal.

The proposal would fund the government through Dec. 4, and some Democrats believe that if it passes, there would be a tacit agreement from Senate GOP colleagues to postpone Trump’s demanded budget reconciliation package until after the election.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Thursday afternoon that he hopes a government funding deal comes together in time for the Senate to vote on it next week before the upper chamber leaves Washington for a five-week August recess.

“There are handful of issues that are still under consideration with the CR, but we filed on it today, we’re setting it up, we’re hoping to vote next week,” Thune said, referring to the continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through early December.

“I’m hoping that both sides can come together and figure the last couple of remaining issues out so we can get the government funded,” he added.

Some Republican senators — such as those who battled Trump last year over cuts to agencies made by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the administration’s attempts to claw back federal appropriations through recissions — want to use the government funding stopgap to reassert their authority over spending matters.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) has led the Republican effort to rein in or halt Trump’s rulemaking to give his political appointees final sign-off authority over grants appropriated by Congress — something that would significantly undercut lawmakers’ power of the purse.

“I certainly think that the rule is deeply flawed. I wrote the first letter from a senator to the OMB to express my opposition,” Collins said, referring to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). “There’s a huge group of organizations that have come out against it.”

Earlier this month, Collins wrote a letter to Russ Vought, the White House’s budget director, and urged him to withdraw parts of the rule, arguing it would allow federal agency to terminate any grant, cooperative agreement or federal assistance at any time, and would “conflict with Congress’s control over the federal funding process.”

She warned the overhaul would likely “harm small and rural communities” and could result in the termination of clinical trials that leave patients without treatment. More broadly, it would “disincentivize scientific researchers,” she argued.

Collins is facing a tough reelection fight in Maine, where her seniority on the Appropriations Committee and influence over spending decisions is an asset for constituents.

Democratic negotiators say they’re working on a deal with Collins and other Republicans to add language to the government funding stopgap to restrict the White House budget office’s rulemaking.

“We’re talking about a resolution to that,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Murray joined Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in writing a letter to the White House budget director, demanding the proposed rule be rescinded.

“The proposed rule would … require and empower political appointees to decide which grants do and do not get funded, explicitly directing them to not defer to expert peer review. This would have far reaching consequences,” the Democrats warned.

Murray indicated that if the continuing resolution includes language to restrict Vought’s effort to overhaul grantmaking, Democrats are ready to fund the government into December — avoiding another protracted shutdown.

“As soon as Thune brings it up,” she said.

Several Democrats told The Hill that they hope to get the stopgap passed before the August recess, which would take another possible shutdown off the table for the fall.

Other Republican senators are backing the effort to stop Trump’s initiative to put political appointees in charge of releasing grants appropriated by Congress.

“I am hoping it goes away,” Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) said of the White House budget office’s proposed rule to overhaul the federal grantmaking process.

“I’ll tell you if there’s one thing that has united all of my nonprofits, all of my tribal organizations, my communities — everybody is coming unglued about this,” she said.

Murkowski said she is drafting a letter to Vought to express the concerns from tribes in her state who oppose the rulemaking.

“There was no consultation at all. It was kind of a, ‘Hey, this is coming your way.’ That’s not consultation here. There is a lot of good reason that I think they need to pull back on this,” she said.

“When you start issuing grants based on political connections. That’s not a good system here,” Murkowski added.

The Office of Management and Budget did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump allies warn that blowing up a rulemaking intended to give the Trump administration the ability to stop grants from going to organizations it believes do not support its policy goals could wind up blowing up the deal to fund the government.

“I think the White House would push back pretty hard if this provision was added to the CR. The CR is already going to be very tough to get across the finish line. If some Republicans are teaming up with Democrats to put language in that bill that creates a problem, I think it’s going to hurt the prospects of getting a CR across the finish line,” said Brian Darling, a GOP strategist and former Senate aide.

Darling predicted that Trump’s MAGA-aligned allies in both chambers would oppose the effort to quash the administration’s rulemaking.

“Most Republicans that aren’t appropriators would fully support this. They would support the idea that OMB should have the authority to make sure that woke organizations don’t receive grants,” he said.

But killing the language to stop the White House budget from shifting authority over grants away from Congress could be a dealbreaker for Democrats and scuttle efforts next week to eliminate the threat of another shutdown.

“It’s a really bad idea, we should block it,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said of the administration’s proposed rule.

Democrats are also pushing to add language to the continuing resolution that would stop the White House budget office from using so-called pocket rescissions to cut federal spending without Congress’s input.

A pocket rescission is attempted when the president asks Congress to rescind funding shortly before the end of the fiscal year, leaving lawmakers no time to review and vote on the matter.

Ordinarily Congress has 45 days to respond and vote on a proposed rescission.

The administration attempted to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid programs in late August of 2025, less than 45 days before the end of the fiscal year.

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