Republicans believe funding deadline amid shutdown impasse with Democrats

With the gridlock over federal funding showing no clear signs of easing, some Republicans in the House and Senate are beginning to consider the possibility of time running out before the next government shutdown deadline.

Senate Democrats have now rejected the GOP bill, a short-term measure to keep the government funded through Nov. 21, called the Continuing Resolution (CR), eight times — and are expected to sink it again Wednesday afternoon.

CRs are traditionally used to give congressional negotiators more time to reach a long-term agreement on government spending. However, the bill that Republicans originally hoped would give them an additional seven weeks after the end of the 2025 fiscal year on Sept. 30 has dwindled to just over five, assuming Democrats change their tune this week.

Both House and Senate Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital acknowledged that it was at least likely that the Nov. 21 date would need to be adjusted.

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“This is an important question that we are all discussing,” Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., who has served in Congress since 2009, told Fox News Digital. “We may need to extend this deadline to make up for the time we lost during the shutdown.”

However, McClintock said he would prefer to create a new CR after the current measure expires, rather than start from scratch on a new bill. 21 passed the House — largely along party lines — on September 19, and most House Republicans are united in now placing the buck on the Senate.

He said: “I think we need to approve the draft resolution presented in the Senate and then evaluate whether we need additional time.”

Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., a ranking member of the committee tasked with leading the federal funding talks, also acknowledged that more time may be needed. He blamed Senate Democrats for filibustering the GOP bill and noted that the House had already passed 12 individual appropriations bills out of its committee.

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“We felt like we were in a really good place and reached a lot of agreement,” he said of the House Appropriations Committee’s work. “And I feel like this set us back in a big way.”

Meanwhile, another House Republican familiar with the appropriations process told Fox News Digital that they had heard of preliminary discussions about combining three bills approved in the House and Senate — addressing military construction, veterans affairs, the Legislature and agriculture — as a combined “minibus” along with an additional 10-day CR.

The House and Senate have already voted to form a “conference committee” on these three bills, a formal working group aimed at giving lawmakers space to reach a compromise.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Los Angeles, acknowledged discussions about the date during a media call with the Republican Study Committee last week.

“I mean, the longer it is [Democrats] “Delaying that, the closer we get to the additional seven-week deadline until November 21, that makes it very difficult to complete the process… in terms of the regular appropriations order,” Johnson told Fox News Digital.

“So there is some debate,” he said. “There’s a lot of concern about that. We haven’t made final decisions yet, because things are preliminary first, and we’re taking it day by day. But I will tell you, obviously, leadership has to be watching these things very closely.”

However, he distanced himself from the idea of ​​creating a new CR during a press conference on Wednesday, telling reporters: “It wouldn’t do us any good to pass another CR from the House, because it would suffer the same fate. Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in the Senate want to shut down the government.”

A new bill could be a potential political battle for the House and Senate, given Republicans’ historic aversion to short-term extensions of federal funding.

While Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Republicans remain largely adamant that the House bill is the one they want to use, Thune did not rule out the idea of ​​changing the date.

“We continue to waste time on the clock, which could be used to do the normal appropriations process,” he said. “So, you know, I think that’s a talking point and certainly something that I’ve editorialized about.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullen, R-Oklahoma, who was one of a handful of Senate Republicans who caucus with Senate Democrats throughout the shutdown, told Fox News Digital that the longer the shutdown lasts, “it becomes more unrealistic that we can get a funding bill through.”

“We will have to reopen the government, and then I can see a real possibility of us having to extend that date,” he said.

However, others in the Senate GOP seemed more stringent in their thinking and wanted to stick with the original plan.

“I don’t think the new deadline will be helpful,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-Los Angeles, told Fox News Digital. “It’s up to the Democrats. We didn’t ask for any conditions. It’s a clean business record. Their demands are not serious. Until they back down from their not-so-serious demands, we will remain closed.”

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Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, said Republicans should continue with the bill itself, and warned that the changes could further delay reopening the government.

“Whatever we do, we still have to go back and renegotiate with the House of Representatives,” he said. “If you start changing the dates and we have to get a new document and start over, it will be delayed again.”

Likewise, Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Oklahoma, another member of the House Appropriations Committee, pushed for the Nov. 21 deadline to remain in place.

“I really think we should stick with it [Nov. 21]. “I would remind people that in fact, in the House, we have passed all 12 appropriations bills,” Bice said. “I don’t think extending the deadline now is best.”

“The focus now must be on reopening the government. We cannot do anything until that happens,” he added.