Senate Democrats don’t have much trust in their colleagues across the aisle to stand up to President Donald Trump in the appropriations process. The administration isn’t making the congressional GOP’s job any easier.
“I’m at the place right now where I can’t trust anything that’s really being said right now on the other side,” Sen. Andy Kim told NOTUS on Thursday, about 12 hours after the Senate narrowly passed its Trump-led rescissions package.
As usual, Congress needs to fund the government before Sept. 30. The conventional process for approving government spending, through appropriations bills, is functionally broken, eroded through decades of polarization and, more recently, the Trump administration’s efforts to cut spending and ignore Congress’ power of the purse.
After years of missed deadlines, stopgap measures and rushed omnibus deals, many senators would like to get back to the regular appropriations process, where lawmakers approve individual funding bills.
But even if both sides agree on that desire, the Trump administration is complicating even the early steps of the appropriations process. Democrats NOTUS spoke to on Thursday said they don’t trust Republicans to uphold their end of any bipartisan bargain.
Russell Vought, Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, didn’t help matters Thursday morning when he told reporters, in response to a question from NOTUS, that he wanted the appropriations process to be “less bipartisan.”
“It’s not going to keep me up at night, and I think will lead to better results, by having the appropriations process be a little bit partisan,” Vought said. “And I don’t think it’s necessarily leading to a shutdown.”
Vought also refused to rule out using more rescission bills to claw back funding in future spending deals.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later said she interpreted Vought’s statement on making the appropriations process more partisan to be that the process should be “more bipartisan.”
Senate Democrats seized on Vought’s words as an example of the administration’s disregard for Congress. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday called for Vought to be fired, and questioned whether Republicans will “let this guy run rampant in one of the most powerful positions in the government?”
While Democrats were seizing on Vought’s comments as the latest proof why they won’t be able to go along with whatever comes out of spending negotiations, Majority Leader John Thune suggested Vought’s comments didn’t deter his resolve to seek a bipartisan process.
“That runs contrary to what, you know, the math tells us around here,” Thune told reporters. “My expectation was, at least I hope, we plan to move [appropriations] bills that will have cooperation from the Democrats.”
Democrats nonetheless said they want to see action from their colleagues across the aisle to prove that commitment.
It was only one example last week of those in the executive branch making it more difficult for Republican leaders in Congress to do bipartisan work. There was also the hard-fought rescissions package, which passed both chambers last week and will codify some of the Department of Government Efficiency cuts.
The Appropriations Committee did report out an appropriations bill on Thursday — this one focused on Commerce, Science and Justice spending — but it’s only the third of the 12 bills they need to get done. That bill also only happened after a weeklong interlude following Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s vote with Democrats on July 10, when she supported Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s amendment blocking the Trump administration from redirecting funds intended for an FBI headquarters.
But Republicans on the committee rioted and pulled their votes from the whole bill as long as the amendment was attached. Murkowski agreed to reverse course after what she said was “a good conversation” with FBI Director Kash Patel. The funding bill, without the Van Hollen amendment, was advanced 19-10.
In all three cases, the Trump administration signaled its desire to override the way things are usually done in Congress. That’s a problem for government funding as long as there are 12 appropriations bills that need 60 votes.
How to solve it is still a hypothetical, as Democrats largely put the onus on Republicans to figure out how to bring both sides to the table. The first test will be a floor vote on the Military Construction and Veterans’ Affairs bill, which Thune plans to schedule this week.
“That’s for them to come to us,” Kim said. “If they need our vote, again, they control the White House, and both chambers. This is, whatever happens, it’s on them. And if they want to engage with us, then they’re going to have to show us what that’s going to mean.”
Most Democratic senators NOTUS spoke to didn’t commit to exactly what they’d accept as a guarantee of good faith. But Sen. Tim Kaine, who insisted he was speaking for himself and not the broader caucus, told reporters he’d feel better about trusting GOP appropriators if they made a public commitment that there would be no more rescissions in this Congress.
“I don’t know that it would have to be in the package, but if it were publicly made as a commitment, I would trust that,” Kaine said. “I wouldn’t necessarily trust a private commitment, but a public commitment I would trust.”
Sen. Gary Peters told NOTUS he’s also waiting for Republicans to court Democrats, though he didn’t provide specifics beyond that Republicans “would have to make some amendment.”
“It’ll take our Republican colleagues saying they’ll actually abide by bipartisan agreements,” Peters said. “Right now, they’re saying, ‘Yeah, we may be bipartisan now, but we can just have a rescission and get rid of all of our agreements.’ So until Republicans are going to be people of their word, it’s going to be very difficult.”
When asked about Thune’s commitment to a bipartisan process, Peters wasn’t convinced.
“We’ll see if he’ll stand up to Mr. Vought,” Peters said. “If they haven’t done that yet, they’re probably not going to do it. Actions speak louder than words.”
Kim and others acknowledged that there are Republicans, and even Republican appropriators, who appear hesitant about letting the appropriations process fall apart. Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins and Murkowski both voted against the rescission package, after voicing concern about Trump hamstringing bipartisan work in Congress.
“I do not think that that should be our path,” Murkowski told reporters, responding to Vought’s comments. “It’s not legislating.”
Democrats insist they need to see Republicans acting on those words as appropriations continue.
“The question is, what is it going to take for Republican senators to put word into deed and defy the OMB,” Sen. Jon Ossoff told NOTUS on Thursday. “Several of them just said publicly that they don’t support doing what they did last night.”
As for how that might play out? Ask Republicans, Ossoff said.
“On that, the ball is in their court,” he said.