WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop walked away from a meeting of House Democrats Monday night believing that a shutdown is likely to occur Wednesday.
“If I had to put money on it, I would say, ‘yes,’” the Albany Democrat said.
Republicans say Democrats are pushing too hard for their priorities instead of signing off on a stopgap spending bill, called a continuing resolution, that will keep funding levels flat through mid-November.
“Republicans passed a clean CR that supports American seniors, veterans, troops, and families,” U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, a Jackson Republican who is running for a Senate seat, wrote on X. “Democrats are holding them hostage to spend $1.5 trillion on their radical agenda.”
Republicans have accused Democrats of paving the way for a shutdown that could be long and painful, leading to mass layoffs and cuts in health care and social services. Democrats argue that those things are happening already under President Donald Trump’s administration and this funding fight is their attempt to stop it.
The Republican Governors Association, a group led by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, and the GOP leaders of Georgia’s legislature released letters Monday urging Congress to approve the stopgap spending bill backed by Republicans and avoid a shutdown at all costs.
“Holding the federal government funding hostage is not just a Washington D.C. debate for political points, it has real and immediate consequences in every state across America that cannot be overlooked,” was a line found in all three letters.
Nearly every congressional Democrat appears willing to allow a shutdown to happen unless Republicans negotiate an agreement that includes language extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year.
“If they want my vote on their budget, they need to put forward a bill that funds health care,” U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock wrote on X.
Democrats also want provisions to prevent Trump from laying off federal workers or cutting funding for programs without congressional approval.
“They’ve got to have locked-in, enforceable mechanisms in the spending bill that they are not going to steal the health care and the other benefits of government from the American people,” Bishop said.
The top Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate met with Trump at the White House on Monday, but there was no movement toward compromise.
Immediately after the meeting, Vice President JD Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Leader John Thune told reporters that Democrats were making unreasonable demands in exchange for avoiding a shutdown.
“You don’t put a gun to the American people’s head and say, ‘Unless you do exactly what Senate and House Democrats want you to do, we’re going to shut down your government,’” Vance said. “That’s exactly what they’re proposing out there.”
But the Democratic leaders, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, said they responding to what voters have told them they want: a bipartisan funding bill that avoids health care cuts that could cause millions of people to lose coverage.
Democrats are willing to make a deal, the leaders said.
“Republicans control the House, Republicans control the Senate and Donald Trump is the president,” Jeffries said. “If the government shuts down, it’s because Republicans have decided to shut the government down and hurt the American people.”
Staff writer Greg Bluestein contributed to this report.
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