Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., warned that a federal shutdown could begin because Democrats are “taking government funding hostage” by demanding partisan spending.
Without passage of funding legislation, parts of the government will close Wednesday. A continuing resolution, already passed by the House, would need at least 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate, meaning some Democrat votes would be required.
Doing so would buy time for the parties to continue the appropriations process to agree on funding for the rest of the fiscal year.
In a Monday opinion column for The Washington Post, Thune wrote that Republicans deliberately decided to draft nonpartisan legislation to extend government funding. Democrats, though, “are holding government funding hostage to a long list of partisan demands.”
“[T]here’s a difference between careful discussion and negotiation during the appropriations process and taking government funding hostage to jam more than $1 trillion in big-government spending in a funding bill designed to last mere weeks,” Thune wrote in his column.
“Major decisions should not be made in haste. And they certainly shouldn’t be made because one party is threatening to shut down the government if it doesn’t get its way.”
Thune said Democrats initially began working with Republicans during the appropriations process, which resulted in the Senate passing three appropriations bills “by strong bipartisan margins.” However, the minority then “decided to abandon the process.”
“Instead of working with Republicans to extend government funding so that we can continue bipartisan appropriations work, Democrats are holding government funding hostage to a long list of partisan demands, totaling more than $1 trillion,” Thune wrote.
“And they’re ready to shut down the government if Republicans don’t comply.”
Thune said he and Republicans “committed to a bipartisan appropriations process, where senators of both parties get to make their voices heard.”
“When we Republicans drafted legislation to extend government funding, we made the deliberate choice to make the bill nonpartisan,” the leader wrote. “Our bill does not include any new Republican policies; it simply extends existing funding levels for a few more weeks to allow us to continue to build on the bipartisan progress we’ve made on appropriations.
“Democrats used to advocate for the kind of clean, nonpartisan bill we’ve put forward. In fact, they voted for 13 clean funding bills while President Joe Biden was in office. It’s unfortunate that they’ve chosen now to abandon their commitment to nonpartisan government funding extensions.”
Thune pleaded for Democrats to give up their partisan demands so a shutdown can be avoided.
“If Democrats would only agree, we can pass the bill at any time and spare the American people all the problems that come with a government shutdown,” he wrote. “And then we can get back to bipartisan negotiations on the year-long fiscal 2026 appropriations bills.”
Reuters contributed to this story.
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