House GOP releases government funding plan : NPR

Scott Detrow, host:

House Republicans have announced plans to fund the government through September. President Trump supports the bill, and House Democrats have already said they are against it. And to talk about it, there’s NPR’s Eric McDaniel. Hey, Eric.

Eric McDaniel, Signature: Hey, Scott.

DETROW: What’s in it?

McDaniel: Well, let’s start here. You may have heard of President Trump talking about his one big beautiful bill that includes all his priorities. This is not the case. And it’s not a change to big names, social security or Medicare. They will automatically continue their funding. What that is like clearing the House Republican to-do list to focus on Trump’s priorities. Basically, we will focus on policy stuff, while still maintaining the light until autumn.

But as far as stopgap measurements are concerned, that’s interesting. Like most extensions, it has basically not been changed. But this time they have increased their defence spending and curbed domestic spending, and are now being changed to funding levels for many individual programs. But ultimately it’s just an overall spending cut of around $8 billion. This would be a lot of money for me, but it’s not a government spending scheme in general.

DETROW: $8 billion, you know – is there a specific program that you think is worth flagging individually here?

McDaniel: Well, I’ve heard a lot about the special projects assigned to lawmakers to become champions. Although this bill doesn’t have any of them, immigration and customs enforcement will see more money go. Funding has been cut for the country’s large healthcare research hub (National Institutes of Health) and education sector programs.

But the big thing to understand about everything that messes with the numbers here is that it’s a sign that House Republicans don’t think they don’t need House Democrats’ help on this. It’s Republican speaker Mike Johnson – he thinks he can do it with a Republican vote, but he has a small margin of error.

DETROW: That’s worth emphasising. We talk like a margin of error for one vote.

McDaniel: That’s right. He could lose a single Republican vote. And in past go-rounds, it would have been a gamble. Johnson had to rely on Democrat votes multiple times to keep the engine running. However, these changes are designed to appeal to this subset of the party’s opposition, like Kentucky’s representative Thomas Massey.

Massie will mostly vote against the invoice. He is part of this small but powerful Congressional Republican who wants to see regular orders on spending.

But of course, Trump is appealing to Republicans. He literally posts exclamation points online and asks them, “Leave united. I will not oppose this.” And that has a big impact on support.

DETROW: At the same time, there was a long track record of Democrats helping Republicans pass these bills to the boundaries. Broadly speaking, the Democrats believe in the core functions of government, right? Are you sure the Democrats can’t help here?

McDaniel: I’m not entirely certain, but I say I have this statement here from Rosa Delauro. She is from Connecticut. She is the top DEM on the Approvals Committee and shows how this begins.

(Reading) I strongly oppose the ongoing solution of this year – she’s calling it – seizing the power of the White House and allowing unchecked billionaires Elon Musk and President Trump to steal from Americans.

So, I don’t think there seems to be a lot of room for collaboration, but I’ll vote if Democrats can stick together, or if there’s someone who doesn’t want to risk shutting down like you’re talking about.

DETROW: Another thing that is always worth flagging – this is just one step in a multi-stage process, and one of these steps can change things.

McDaniel: That’s right. And in the Senate, Republican majority leader John Toon will absolutely need a democratic vote. The Chamber of Commerce has a de facto threshold of 60 votes to pass most laws. Republicans have 53 seats, so they need to have at least seven Democrats. And given the reaction we’ve seen so far, it can be pretty difficult. As former President Biden often says, there is a lot of luck in your senior year.

DETROW: That’s Eric McDaniel from NPR. Thank you for coming.

McDaniel: Joy, Scott.

(Sour Soul, Soundbite of Badbadnotgood & Ghostface Killah Song)

Copyright©2025 NPR. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. For more information, please see the www.npr.org website Terms of Use and Permissions page.

The NPR transcript is quickly created by the NPR contractor on deadlines. This text is not in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may differ. The authoritative record of NPR programming is audio records.