Top congressional Democrats are looking to avoid a spending confrontation with President Donald Trump and Republicans in the early months of their new majorities.
Two people granted anonymity to describe private strategy said the Democrats are discussing seeking a punt that would go into March or April as they negotiate a stopgap funding bill ahead of an upcoming Dec. 11 deadline.
A showdown is still possible next month, however, over Iran war funding. While Republicans remain in charge, Democratic leaders are under intense pressure to use their spending powers to end hostilities — potentially sparking a government shutdown.
Some members in both the House and Senate are already pushing to include language in the expected stopgap bill to block any funding for the conflict. Key leaders have also said they want to end the war but have yet specified their demands ahead of the December deadline.
But Democrats otherwise want to spend their early days in power focused on executing an affordability policy agenda without getting mired in shutdown threats or brinkmanship with Trump.
Senate Democrats talked during a closed-door lunch this week about potential options for what Iran-related language in a December stopgap could look like. Meanwhile, Republicans have sought to continue business as usual, releasing new fiscal 2027 funding bills even as they acknowledge the need for a funding punt next month.
Conversations over the stopgap are still preliminary, and Democrats will need to work out a deal with Republicans on both the date and any Iran language.
“We are exploring every option to figure out how to end the war in Iran,” Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democratic appropriator in the Senate, said in an interview earlier this week. “I don't trust [Trump] at all. So we are looking [at] what language we can put in here that will actually make sure that we are writing bills that the American people voted for.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who is expected to be speaker next year, told reporters Thursday that House Democrats have been “strongly opposed to this war from Day 1, and we will continue to do everything we can to end it.”
He said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top House Democratic appropriator, would evaluate how to deal with war funding.
“She’s working through all of our Democratic priorities to see what’s possible in advance of Dec. 11,” Jeffries added.
DeLauro told reporters this week that she still wants a stopgap that is “as short as possible.”
