House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries signaled Friday that Democrats will not support House Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposal to avert a looming government shutdown.
Johnson (R-La.) indicated Friday that he intends to put a “clean” continuing resolution up for a vote early next week — a move Jeffries blasted as “unacceptable.”
“We are putting a clean CR on the floor early next week, probably on Tuesday,” Johnson told Fox News. “It will fund the government at current levels because that will allow us, as we said earlier, to make sure all the cuts and all the new innovations are calculated so we can actually use it in the federal budgeting.”
Conservative Republicans have called for any stopgap measure to include the codification of cuts ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but that is a non-starter for Democrats in Congress, who are demanding guardrails to prevent President Trump and DOGE chief Elon Musk from slashing congressionally approved spending.
Republicans hold a narrow 218-214 majority, and Johnson may need Democratic help to pass his bill.
“Republicans have decided to introduce a partisan continuing resolution that threatens to cut funding for healthcare, nutritional assistance and veterans benefits through the end of the current fiscal year,” Jeffries wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter circulated on Friday. “That is not acceptable.
“House Democrats would enthusiastically support a bill that protects Social Security, Medicare, veterans health and Medicaid, but Republicans have chosen to put them on the chopping block to pay for billionaire tax cuts,” he added.
“We cannot back a measure that rips away life-sustaining healthcare and retirement benefits from everyday Americans as part of the Republican scheme to pay for massive tax cuts for their wealthy donors like Elon Musk.
“Medicaid is our redline.”
Congress has until 11:59 p.m. on March 14 to pass a measure to keep the government open.
Any bill to keep the government funded passed by the GOP-led House would need to clear a 60-vote threshold in the Senate – meaning at least seven Democratic senators would need to join Republicans to pass it and send it to President Trump’s desk.
