House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday warned GOP leaders that House Democrats will oppose any government spending bill negotiated by only Republicans.
Behind Jeffries, House Democrats had voted almost unanimously in March against the Republicans’ 2025 spending extension, which had been crafted without input from Democratic appropriators. As Congress inches closer to a Sept. 30 deadline for 2026 spending, Jeffries said his caucus is ready to hold the line again if they’re cut out of the talks.
“The ball is in the court of the Trump administration and Republicans, because 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,” he told reporters in the Capitol on the first day.
“We will not support a partisan spending bill put forward by Republicans that hurts everyday Americans.”
Jeffries said he spoke with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) last week on the spending issue, which he characterized as “an opening conversation … about the importance of trying to find common ground where possible.”
“But in that conversation,” he quickly added, “I also made clear we’re not going to support partisan funding legislation. Period. Full stop.”
In March, all but one House Democrat had opposed the Republicans’ spending bill. The legislation still became law, however, not only because Johnson was able to muscle it through the lower chamber, where Republicans have the majority, but also because Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and a group of moderate Democrats supported the package when it reached the upper chamber.
Schumer’s support infuriated House Democrats of all stripes, who had pressed the Senate leader to follow their lead and use a filibuster to sink the GOP bill. The episode has raised questions about how Schumer will approach this month’s debate in the face of the threat of a government shutdown if Congress fails to get a bill to President Trump’s desk by Oct. 1.
Schumer on Tuesday released a letter that seemed to echo Jeffries’s warning that Democrats would oppose a partisan Republican bill.
“The only way to avoid a shutdown is to work in a bipartisan way, with a bill that can get both Republican and Democratic votes in the Senate,” Schumer wrote. “However, as we near the funding deadline, Republicans are once again threatening to go-at-it-alone – heading our country towards a shutdown.”
Jeffries said House and Senate Democrats “are working closely together,” and that he speaks with Schumer “regularly.”
He stopped short of saying that House and Senate Democrats are united in a strategy of opposing a partisan GOP bill.
