The GOP has a plan to avoid a Sept. 30 shutdown. Democrats aren’t yet sold.

The GOP has a plan to avoid a Sept. 30 shutdown. Democrats aren’t yet sold.
Post Author webadmin
2025-09-19

The GOP has a plan to avoid a Sept. 30 shutdown. Democrats aren’t yet sold.

House Republicans advanced a bill Friday morning to keep the government open for seven additional weeks in an attempt to put the pressure on Democrats to relent and accept their plan to avoid a partial government shutdown that could start at the end of this month.

The 217-212 vote in the House of Representatives was on a measure to keep the government open until Nov. 21 and provide additional millions for lawmaker security in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

The vote came in almost exactly on party lines, with Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Jared Golden of Maine crossing party lines. Massie and Spartz are two Republicans who bucked their party to vote no. Golden is a Democrat who voted yes.

The Senate is aiming to take up the measure later today. That’s where things could get bumpier, with the 60-vote threshold there meaning Democratic votes are needed for passage.

For now, Democrats are united behind a different plan with Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries saying Friday morning “we are a hard no on the partisan Republican spending bill.”

He described the vote as a choice between standing up for the healthcare spending Democrats want to include or “bending a knee to Donald Trump.”

As lawmakers debate a government funding extension, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., awaits the arrival of the leader of the Orthodox Christian Church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for a meeting, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is seen at the Capitol in Washington on Sept. 17. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) · ASSOCIATED PRESS

This latest bout of back and forth — as markets decide whether or not to worry about the economic effects of a possible shutdown — comes as Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline over either extending funding or moving to a partial government shutdown.

Democrats are pushing their own plan that includes a longer list of priorities focused around the reversal of recent healthcare spending cuts that Jeffries and other leaders say needs to be included to secure Democratic votes.

Both the Republican and Democratic plans are expected to be considered by the Senate as early as this afternoon. Both bills are expected to fail to reach the 60 vote threshold.

That means the widely-expected bottom line is that today’s back and forth will be only be a prelude to a final frenzy of talks on Sept. 29-30, when lawmakers return after a planned recess next week.

“The probability of a government shutdown has increased significantly,” noted Raymond James in a Thursday note to clients.

Markets are paying little attention so far — a pattern that has recent historical precedence.

One possible reason is that past government shutdowns since 1995 had little effect on stocks, according to a Raymond James review that even found that the S&P 500 went up on average during those funding gaps.

Analyst expectations across the board say this latest round of brinkmanship is more likely to end with a shutdown than recent standoffs that began with gridlock but saw last-minute concessions.