As lawmakers return to Capitol Hill after a month-long August recess, Washington finds itself hurtling toward a high-stakes showdown: Congress has only 14 legislative days to prevent a government shutdown, with federal funding set to expire at the end of September 2025. The clock is ticking, and the mood on the Hill is anything but relaxed.
According to Punchbowl News and Beritaja, the urgency is palpable. Both the House and Senate will be out for the week of September 22 due to Rosh Hashanah, further limiting the window for action. That leaves just two weeks for Congress and the White House to reach a deal—or risk shuttering federal agencies and services on October 1.
“If they continue to proceed down the lane of trying to jam a partisan bill down the throats of the American people without working with Democrats in the House or the Senate, our position will be the same as it was in March,” warned House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, as reported by UPI. “We will not support a partisan spending bill put forward by Republicans that hurts everyday Americans.”
The standoff is rooted in deep divisions over spending priorities. The House GOP, in line with President Trump’s proposals, has drafted funding bills that call for significant cuts to social programs, including the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Education. The House Labor-HHS subcommittee’s fiscal year 2026 proposal, released Monday night and marked up on September 2, allocates $184.5 billion in discretionary spending—$14 billion less than the previous year, according to Beritaja.
House Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., defended the cuts, stating, “This measure prioritizes cutting-edge biomedical research, strengthens our medical supply chains and biodefense infrastructure, and ensures support for rural hospitals and public health programs. With each measure, we reaffirm that Making America Healthy Again is not just a slogan, but a promise.”
But Democrats are having none of it. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the committee, blasted the proposal: “This bill is an attack on the programs and services that Americans depend on at every stage of their life.” She and other Democrats have specifically criticized the proposed reductions for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, need-based student financial aid, and programs supporting maternal and child health.
Senate Democrats, for their part, have been working to make the funding fight about healthcare. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his caucus held more than 275 events in August to hammer home the message that Republican cuts would hurt American families. Schumer emphasized in a letter that he and Jeffries “are aligned on our shared priorities for September,” as reported by Punchbowl News and Beritaja.
In a joint letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Jeffries and Schumer pressed for a meeting of the so-called “Big Four” congressional leaders to get ahead of the crisis. “As leaders of the House and Senate, you have the responsibility to govern for all Americans and work on a bipartisan basis to avert a painful, unnecessary shutdown at the end of September,” they wrote, according to UPI. “Yet, it is clear that the Trump Administration, and many within your party, are preparing to ‘go it alone’ and continue to legislate on a solely Republican basis.”
The White House, meanwhile, has added fuel to the fire by unilaterally rescinding nearly $5 billion in foreign aid last week via a so-called “pocket rescission.” Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, called the move “unlawful,” and Congressional Democrats decried it as another example of the executive branch chipping away at the power of Congress. “President Trump and his friends in Congress have already been shutting down whole parts of the government, through rescissions and now through unconstitutional and dangerous pocket rescissions,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told Beritaja. “If they continue in those efforts, I won’t support keeping the government open September 30, because they’re already closing it in ways that are forbidden and inappropriate.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pushed back, telling Politico, “We do not believe it’s in the nation’s interest to close the government down. If Schumer and the Democrats have that in mind, I think that’s deeply regrettable.”
With time running short, both sides recognize that a full slate of 12 appropriations bills is unlikely to pass both chambers by the September 30 deadline. The expectation is that Congress will turn to a short-term funding measure—a continuing resolution, or CR—to keep agencies operating. But even a stopgap bill will require bipartisan support, and the length and scope of such a CR are hotly debated. Will it last until mid-November, mid-December, or perhaps even longer? Some lawmakers fear a year-long CR would be devastating for the appropriations process, but the White House appears willing to accept current funding levels if necessary, especially after securing new defense, border security, and veterans’ funding in a previous omnibus package.
Beyond the budget battle, Congress faces a packed agenda. Lawmakers are also wrangling over President Trump’s nominees, with more than 140 awaiting Senate confirmation. Senate Republicans are considering triggering the so-called “nuclear option” to speed up the process, potentially allowing up to 10 nominations to be voted on simultaneously if approved by the same committee. As Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., argued in the Wall Street Journal, “it is time to change Senate confirmation rules” due to what he described as Democratic obstruction.
Schumer, however, countered that “historically bad nominees deserve a historic level of scrutiny by Senate Democrats.” The procedural fight is expected to intensify, with Republicans also floating the possibility of using recess appointments to bypass Democratic opposition—though even some in the GOP are uneasy with that approach.
Meanwhile, the issue of crime and federal control in Washington, D.C., is looming large. Trump, who is legally allowed to federalize the city’s police for up to 30 days, requires Congressional approval to extend that authority. Lawmakers heard concerns from constituents over the summer that Trump might deploy the National Guard to other cities, and the House Oversight Committee is expected to take up various D.C. crime bills in the coming weeks. Trump himself wrote on Truth Social that he is working on a comprehensive crime bill with Johnson and Thune.
And if all that weren’t enough, there’s the ongoing push to release all files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case. Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., are gathering signatures for a bill to force the Trump administration to turn over all relevant Epstein materials. “If the House passes this, it will be such strong political pressure on the president to release the full files,” Khanna told Beritaja. A press conference with Epstein survivors is scheduled for Wednesday, and the House Oversight Committee has already received an initial batch of documents from the Department of Justice.
With the stakes so high and the deadline fast approaching, the next two weeks promise to be a test of both political will and legislative skill. As the Capitol’s corridors fill once more with lawmakers, staffers, and reporters, the nation waits to see whether Congress can avert another costly and disruptive government shutdown—or if partisan brinkmanship will once again bring Washington to a standstill.
