Trump to meet with Democratic leaders to discuss govt funding bills

By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

With government funding progress halted and a government shutdown deadline looming, President Donald Trump is reaching across the aisle to Democratic congressional leaders to discuss a bipartisan deal.

However, the chances of the president reaching an agreement with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., remain slim. Trump told reporters Wednesday that he expects the meeting will be “almost a waste of time to meet because they never approve anything.”

Congress has until Sept. 30 – the end of fiscal year 2025 – to pass all 12 annual appropriations bills that provide funding for federal agencies to spend on programs. If lawmakers do not pass all 12 in some form through both chambers of Congress, they risk a government shutdown.

So far, only two of those bills have passed the House, while a three-bill minibus is the only 2026 appropriations legislation that has passed the Senate.

Part of the delay is due to Democrats purposefully dragging out the confirmation process for over 130 of the president’s civilian nominees – retaliation against Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act and $9 billion rescissions package – which slowed progress on passing appropriations bills as well.

Schumer has threatened to force a government shutdown unless Republicans “work across the aisle with Democrats to responsibly fund the government,” meaning that they must refuse to include any of Trump’s proposed budget cuts.

In response to what Republicans have termed “a historic level of obstruction,” Trump referred to the Senate Minority Leader as “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer” and labeled Democrats as “Country hating THUGS” in a social media post.

If Trump’s meeting with Schumer and Jeffries yields no positive results, Republicans will have further incentive to choose the so-called “nuclear option” – changing Senate confirmation voting rules — to clear the nominee backlog and enable them to finish work on appropriations bills.

Both chambers of Congress are currently in recess until September, giving lawmakers only a few weeks to either work together and pass all 12 funding bills or else pass a Continuing Resolution for a fourth time in a row.

Congress never passed a fiscal year 2025 budget, instead passing three consecutive CRs to keep government funding essentially on cruise control until Sept. 30.