As the funding deadline and a potential government shutdown draw closer and closer, the Republican push for DOGE cuts to be included in a bill is creating tension in Washington. Will our leaders be able to craft legislation with enough support to prevent a shutdown?

From The Hill. Growing calls among hardline House conservatives to incorporate cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) into a developing government funding bill are complicating efforts to avert a shutdown two weeks ahead of the looming deadline.

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The pleas are poised to pin Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) into the tricky — yet familiar — position of managing his right flank while keeping the lights on in Washington, which will require some support from congressional Democrats.

“I would have a real hard time voting for a clean [continuing resolution] after everything that we’ve seen out of DOGE,” said Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus. …

Reflecting DOGE cuts in appropriations, however, would spark outcry from Democrats and almost certainly lead to a government shutdown — an outcome that Johnson wants to avoid in the first 100 days of the Trump administration, when the Republican trifecta is trying to tick items off their to-do list. …

Those dynamics are set to come to a head in the coming weeks, when congressional leaders will have to craft a government funding plan and get it to Trump’s desk by the March 14 deadline. Leaders increasingly say that will require some kind of continuing resolution (CR), its length yet to be determined, as discussions about fiscal year 2025 levels continue — a measure that will require at least some Democratic support due to the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. …

Johnson, for his part, appears to be evolving on the question of codifying DOGE efforts in the funding bill.

Asked Wednesday afternoon about including the slashes in the stopgap, the Speaker cast doubt on the idea, expressing support for a bill with minimal policy add-ons — potential details that would complicate the path to getting sufficient Democratic support.

“I don’t know if we can get it into the CR,” Johnson told reporters when asked about reflecting DOGE cuts in the legislation. …

Later that day, however, Johnson floated the idea of reflecting some of the DOGE actions in the funding bill language.

“That’s why I say you add anomalies to a CR, you can increase the spending, you can decrease the spending, you can add language that says, for example, the dramatic changes that have been made to USAID would be reflected in the ongoing spending,” Johnson said during an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. …

“Right now I think most of my colleagues would say, why are we going to fund the very things that DOGE is identifying that we shouldn’t be funding?” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas.) said. …

Across the Capitol, however, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) threw cold water on the idea of codifying DOGE cuts in the spending bill, kicking the effort into the next fiscal year — underscoring the difficult path Johnson will face is he tries to fit DOGE cuts into the spending bill. …

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(Excerpt from The Hill. Photo Credit: EL Evangelista/Pexels)