{"id":3671,"date":"2026-07-11T12:54:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T07:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3671"},"modified":"2026-07-11T12:54:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T07:54:30","slug":"gop-senators-dread-pre-election-shutdown-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3671","title":{"rendered":"GOP senators dread pre-election shutdown fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/KZe1h4UyMqM72Kdo4Uxg8WoAYtg=\/0x0:6156x3463\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/09\/1783630133114.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Senate Republicans are anxious to avoid giving Democrats another opening to force a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/11\/10\/schumer-government-shutdown-democrats\" target=\"_blank\">government shutdown<\/a> weeks before the midterm elections.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>The appropriations process is a slog, Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/07\/mitch-mcconnell-health-senate-gop-leaders\" target=\"_blank\">Mitch McConnell&#8217;s<\/a> absence adds a complication, and election season raises the stakes. Add to that the Senate is haunted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/01\/14\/house-government-funding-shutdown\" target=\"_blank\">three shutdowns<\/a> in the past year.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>The annual, nuts-and-bolts funding process used to be more bipartisan, but it has become increasingly politicized.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s only July, and senators are already talking about kicking the can down the road.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What we&#8217;re hearing:<\/strong> During multiple closed-door lunches before the Fourth of July break, senators raised fears about Democrats forcing another shutdown fight, multiple sources familiar with the discussions tell us.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In the meetings, Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has stressed the need to ensure the Senate is not trapped in another funding emergency right before the election. <\/li>\n<li>Some senators are pushing for a short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution, to get them through the midterms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom in:<\/strong> Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) still wants to stick with the normal funding process to avoid a CR.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>But Collins has been vocal about her frustration with Democrats&#8217; unwillingness to vote for the funding bills in committee.<\/li>\n<li>Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray&#8217;s (D-Wash.) &#8220;threat to vote against all of the appropriations bills, including those Democrats have helped draft, is contrary to the way I always operated with her when our roles were reversed,&#8221; Collins told reporters last month.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Democrats, meanwhile<\/strong>, have blamed the Trump administration&#8217;s hefty budget requests, including $1.5 trillion for defense spending. They accuse Republicans of being unwilling to negotiate on the top-line defense and non-defense spending.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;We made it clear to the Republicans that we are not going to accept a gigantic war budget offer, that they have to be reasonable,&#8221; Murray told reporters last month.<\/li>\n<li>The Trump administration also asked Congress last month for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/25\/trump-white-house-congress-request-iran-war-us-farmers-ebola\" target=\"_blank\">$87.6 billion<\/a> in supplemental funding, most of it to cover costs related to the Iran war.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The intrigue: <\/strong>McConnell&#8217;s (R-Ky.) medical absence from the Senate could make the hard job of fully funding government agencies even harder. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Appropriations Committee already had to delay markups of spending bills in part due to McConnell&#8217;s hospitalization.<\/li>\n<li>There is only a one-seat margin on the Appropriations panel, and Republicans worry they can&#8217;t count on Democratic votes as they have in the past.<\/li>\n<li>McConnell also chairs the subcommittee for defense appropriations \u2014 putting him in charge of one of the most pivotal spending bills and playing a key role in the requested supplemental package for Iran.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The details: <\/strong>The deadline to fund the government next fiscal year is Sept. 30, about a month before the midterm elections.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Senate is scheduled to be in recess all of October, to allow those up for reelection to focus on campaigning in their states.<\/li>\n<li>All that could be derailed if the government does not get funded.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Catch up quick: <\/strong>Last October, the government began a 10-plus-week shutdown as Democrats demanded an extension to expiring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/08\/obamacare-aca-premiums-price-jump\" target=\"_blank\">Obamacare tax credits<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>At the start of the year, there was another brief shutdown because of disputes over Homeland Security funding after fatal ICE shootings.<\/li>\n<li>DHS was then left unfunded for months. Now the department has been funded through the rest of President Trump&#8217;s term. If a shutdown occurs in the fall, DHS would not be affected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Republicans are anxious to avoid giving Democrats another opening to force a government shutdown weeks before the midterm elections. Why it matters: The appropriations process is a slog, Sen. Mitch McConnell&#8217;s absence adds a complication, and election season raises the stakes. Add to that the Senate is haunted by three shutdowns in the past&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/KZe1h4UyMqM72Kdo4Uxg8WoAYtg=\/0x0:6156x3463\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/09\/1783630133114.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}