House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The House passed a short-term extension of current federal funding levels, called a continuing resolution (CR), last week. The vote fell largely along party lines, with just one Democrat crossing the aisle in the measure's favor.
An effort to consider the bill in the Senate hours later was scuttled when most Democrats, along with two Republicans, opposed a vote to begin debating the measure.
Now both parties are blaming one another for a potential shutdown – which could hit at midnight on Oct. 1 if a deal is not passed in both chambers by then.
Republicans are accusing Democrats of recklessly pushing for a shutdown and making unworkable demands in exchange for keeping the government open.
"REMINDER: House Republicans have already done the job of passing a clean, bipartisan bill to keep the government open," Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement on X Wednesday. "Now it’s up to Senate Democrats - who have long said shutdowns are bad and hurt people - to vote to fund the American government, or shut it down because they want to restore taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens."
Republicans have also pointed out that government funding levels have remained relatively steady since fiscal year (FY) 2024, when Democrats supported then-President Joe Biden's spending priorities.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he leaves the White House in Washington, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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"The notion that we're supposed to accept that this is a clean continuing resolution is a joke. It's not. It's dirty for a wide variety of reasons. I explained it repeatedly, and it continues the assault on the healthcare of the American people."
He also argued against the point that Democrats approved those same spending levels last year, noting that a majority of his caucus opposed a bill in March that kept those levels extended through Sept. 30.
"It's very easy to take a look at the bill in December that was passed with bipartisan margins, and signed into law by then-President Joe Biden, and the bill in March that was jammed down the throats of the American people in a very partisan way and signed into law by Donald Trump," Jeffries said. "Don't accept that idea that it's the Biden spending numbers when the facts say exactly the opposite."
Democrats introduced their own CR last week aimed at keeping the government funded through Oct. 31, while also reversing Republicans' Medicaid changes and preventing Trump from making any cuts to funding allocated by Congress – both of which were panned as nonstarters by Republicans.
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/top-house-dem-exposes-partys-strategy-blame-republicans-looming-government-shutdown