Senate Republicans are grappling with President Donald Trump’s move to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid funding and what the ramifications could be on the looming deadline to fund the government.
Senate Democrats previously warned after the GOP’s first go-round with clawbacks that any further attempt to gut congressionally-approved funding would be a red line, and that it could lead to Democratic lawmakers withholding their support for a short-term government funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR).
The Trump administration’s decision last week to go forward with a pocket rescission, which skirts the 45-day window needed for a typical clawback package, rattled Senate Democrats and has alarmed some Republicans about finding a path forward to keep the government open.
‘The last thing in the world we need to do is to give our Democrat colleagues any reason not to try to move forward with the appropriations process,’ Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said.
‘That does concern me, and once again, we need to get the appropriations process back on track,’ he continued. ‘We’re going to do whatever we can to get this thing through this year. We’re committed to it. It’s better if Congress takes back its authority on this. Quit doing continuing resolutions, do the appropriations process.’
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., on the other hand, was all for the move and wasn’t worried about the impact it could have on a shutdown.
‘I’m concerned about more spending from those negotiations,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘Again, you’re not going to get me concerned about anything that cuts spending or reduces the size and scope across government. I’m all for it, no matter how we do it.’
Still, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., will likely need Democratic support to advance any spending bills, let alone a CR by Sept. 30, through the upper chamber’s filibuster threshold, given that a handful of Republicans never vote for funding extensions.
Rounds and other members of the Senate Appropriations Committee are in favor of barreling forward with passing spending bills and have so far been successful in advancing three with bipartisan support.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who in July warned that Trump’s first $9 billion clawback package would have ‘grave implications’ on the appropriations process, has maintained that congressional Democrats were united in their desire to continue working on spending bills with Republicans.
He warned that Republicans would ‘face their greatest test under the Trump administration,’ to either work across the aisle or face a shutdown.
‘However, as near the funding deadline, Republicans are once again threatening to go at it alone, heading our country towards a shutdown,’ Schumer said.
Thune has also remained committed to seeing lawmakers pass the dozen bills needed to fund the government, but acknowledged ‘inevitably, it looks like [we] need a CR for some time for the foreseeable future.’
And he warned that Democrats may try to use the latest clawback package ‘as an excuse’ to not fund the government.
‘That’s all it’ll be is an excuse, because they know that I’m committed, Sen. [Susan] Collins is committed, our conference is committed to working constructively to try and fund the government through the normal appropriations process,’ he said.
Meanwhile, some Republicans questioned if turning toward clawbacks was the best way to tackle spending cuts and argued that such measures were already baked into the annual appropriations process.
When news of the package surfaced, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, charged that efforts to claw back ‘appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.’
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told Fox News Digital he wasn’t worried about the legality of the move so much as whether turning to the clawbacks was ‘the most efficient way to get at spending cuts.’
‘I think the appropriations process is a better way, and we’ve had some success, and I’d like to keep that momentum going and try to, you know, avoid a shutdown and get back to regular order,’ he said.