Congress’ top appropriators are finalizing a bipartisan agreement on overall government funding totals as House Republican leaders forge ahead with a different plan President Donald Trump has endorsed to avoid a shutdown.
The impending deal on funding totals comes far too late to save Congress from having to clear a funding patch next week to avert a government shutdown set to begin just after midnight on March 14. Whether that continuing resolution lasts just a few weeks — or spans through September, as Trump prefers — remains an open question.
Despite the tentative agreement among appropriators for funding “top lines,” House Republican leaders still aim to hold a vote next week on a Trump-backed plan for a “full-year” continuing resolution that keeps the military and non-defense agencies operating on flat funding levels through Sept. 30 — the end of the current fiscal year.
“I’m counting on the full-year CR. I think that’s the only plan that works,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview Wednesday afternoon.
