With just days before the Sept. 30 funding deadline, Capitol Hill is bracing for a government shutdown that both sides now say looks inevitable.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday canceled a planned meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., signaling there would be no last-minute compromise.
Senate Democrats insist they cannot support any House-passed funding bill without direct talks, but Republicans argue there’s nothing to discuss. GOP leaders are pushing a “clean” seven-week continuing resolution, framing it as a take-it-or-leave-it offer. Trump, meanwhile, has made clear he will not concede to Democrat demands and is prepared to make the shutdown as politically painful as possible for his opponents.
The House last week passed a short-term funding bill, but the Senate on Wednesday rejected it.
“The chance of a shutdown is 99%,” GOP strategist Brian Darling told The Hill. “Both parties have incentives to dig in and show their bases they’re willing to fight.”
The White House escalated pressure by circulating a memo directing agencies to consider using a shutdown to issue reduction-in-force notices, a move Schumer blasted as “an attempt at intimidation.”
Democratic strategist Jonathan Kott told The Hill that Trump is provoking Democrats to block any Republican-drafted government funding bill by refusing to consider their requests to address rising healthcare costs, the issue Schumer has put at the center of the funding showdown.
“If he won’t even sit down and meet to have a discussion, he is telling Congress, he is telling the American people he would rather shut down the government,” Kott said of Trump.
Kott said Democrats can’t back down now, warning that if they agreed to a clean short-term funding stopgap after demanding concessions on healthcare, they would undermine any leverage they might have in November or December to negotiate a longer-term funding deal.
Still, cracks are showing inside Democrat ranks, The Hill reported. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., questioned whether Schumer and Jeffries have any leverage, warning that a shutdown could hand Trump more power to redirect funds and sideline federal agencies.
Republicans, however, see a political advantage.
“President Trump holds all the cards right now,” GOP strategist John Ullyot told The Hill. “It looks bad for Democrats if they shut down the government.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., added that Democrat funding demands were “unhinged,” justifying Trump’s decision to scrap talks.
Both sides appear locked in, with neither showing signs of blinking. As the clock ticks toward the deadline, lawmakers are preparing for a shutdown showdown that could drag on well into the fall.
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