Democrats in Congress are threatening to block the Republicans’ short-term government funding proposal, saying that the GOP is refusing to engage in bipartisan negotiations related to healthcare spending and restricting President Trump’s impoundment powers. The government is set to shut down at the end of the day on September 30 unless a deal is reached.

On Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson and House appropriators released their proposal to keep the government open through mid-November. The bill is a straightforward extension of funding at current levels, plus more than $80 million for additional security measures for the executive branch, Congress, and the Supreme Court. That provision was inspired by the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk. 

“Keeping our government open and working for the American people is not a partisan issue — and this clean, short-term funding extension reflects that,” the House Appropriations Committee chairman, Congressman Tom Cole, said in a statement. 

Democrats were quick to say that the deal was unacceptable, however. The top Democrats on the House and Senate appropriations panels, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and Senator Patty Murray, indicated that they would not support the bill. Senator Charles Schumer and the House minority leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, said the same. 

The funding bill needs 60 votes in order to advance through the Senate. One Republican, Senator Rand Paul, says he will not be voting for it, which means the Republican majority will need at least eight Democrats to vote with them should all other GOP members stay on board.

“The House Republican-only spending bill fails to meet the needs of the American people and does nothing to stop the looming healthcare crisis,” Messrs. Schumer and Jeffries said in a joint press release. The two men are referring to certain Affordable Care Act tax credits that were passed by Congress during the Biden administration and are due to expire at the end of the year. 

The chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Susan Collins, said she would be fine with extending those tax credits, but not at this time. “You could wait,” Ms. Collins told reporters Tuesday of dealing with the ACA issue. “I think what would end up [happening] is you probably keep the eligibility criteria steady for the next year.” 

When asked by The New York Sun if she believed a verbal agreement with Democrats to deal with the tax credits later this year would be enough to get them to drop their opposition to this funding proposal, Ms. Collins simply shrugged. 

Another member of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Lankford, tells the Sun that there is little appetite within the GOP conference for extending the tax credits as currently written, which is what Ms. Collins now says she is open to. 

“This was a [reform] that was done for Covid. We’re not in a Covid emergency anymore,” he tells the Sun. Mr. Lankford says he believes Democrats’ demands for those funding extensions are not “reasonable.”

The funding deadline not only presents logistical challenges for the government itself, but it is putting Democrats in a political pinch. Back in March, Mr. Schumer and nine other Senate Democrats voted to advance a Republican-authored spending deal despite the legislation only getting one Democratic vote in the House. 

After Mr. Schumer allowed the GOP bill to pass through his chamber unobstructed, his popularity among fellow Democrats plunged. At least one House Democrat, Congressman Glenn Ivey, said that Mr. Schumer may need to be replaced as Senate minority leader. Several Democratic candidates now running for Senate in the 2026 elections have said they would not support him if he ran for another term as leader. 

At least one leading Senate candidate, the lieutenant governor of Illinois, Juliana Stratton, called on Democrats to block the funding deal in a post on X on Tuesday. “What we’re about to see play out in Washington, D.C. is not a normal budget showdown because Donald Trump is not a normal president,” Ms. Stratton said. “Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have never, and never will, negotiate in good faith.”

One Democratic lawmaker who voted to advance the March funding deal, Senator Brian Schatz, said Tuesday that he would not vote for this new package. “Still have ten days,” until the shutdown, Mr. Schatz said, “but we’re off to a terrible start because the president said he doesn’t need Democrats and he wants to shut us out.”

“By what the speaker did today, they’re going through with it,” Mr. Schatz added.