The fight over curbing President Donald Trump’s ability to freeze cash is now the make-or-break dispute as leading lawmakers close in on a deal to avert a government shutdown next month.
Top appropriators on both sides of the Capitol reported good progress Monday night toward a bipartisan deal on overall spending totals for the military and non-defense programs, with a shutdown deadline looming on March 14.
But House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said Democrats’ insistence on adding conditions to stop Trump from withholding funding that Congress already appropriated could foil a final agreement.
“I think we’ve moved a long way on the numbers. We’re very close. I would say essentially there,” Cole told reporters. “The real question is conditions on presidential action. And look, there’s no way a Republican Senate and Republican House are going to limit what a Republican president can do.”
