House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Sunday that Democrats must act in the Senate to prevent a government shutdown, stressing that Republicans have already passed a short-term funding bill to keep agencies open through November.
"We passed a bill through the House to keep the government from shutting down," the Louisiana Republican said on ABC's "This Week." "Hakeem [Jeffries] actually whipped his members to shut the government down. He voted that way. But luckily, we were able to get the bill passed. So, right now it's over in the Senate, and it's on Chuck Schumer and Democrats in the Senate to keep the government from shutting down, and I hope they'll come to their senses and do that early next week."
Scalise said the bill does not alter spending levels and matches what Democrats supported earlier this year.
"If you go back to March, this is the same set of funding levels that Democrats voted for in March that is contained in this CR," he said. "So, there is no new changes to what we're trying to do to keep negotiations going."
He argued that House appropriators have already reached bipartisan agreements on many areas of government funding.
"Ultimately, let's let those talks continue until November with this short-term government funding bill that's in the Senate," Scalise said. "But it's the same levels of funding that the Senate voted for, Democrats included, back in March."
On the issue of possible federal layoffs, Scalise said, "COVID is over, and yet many of those federal agencies are still 20 or 30% larger than they were before COVID. And so there's been a need for a rightsizing of the federal government for a long time."
He added that "there are billions and tens of billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse that still needs to be rooted out," accusing Democrats of opposing efforts to eliminate it. "Every Democrat voted [to continue] taxpayer funding for illegals to get government benefits. Every Democrat voted against rooting that out. Giving checks, government checks, to dead people. ... So far they've shown they don't want to root out waste, fraud, and abuse."
Despite partisan divisions, Scalise expressed optimism about avoiding a shutdown. "I, Speaker Johnson, all of my Republican colleagues voted to prevent a government shutdown. ... There's still time for an agreement to be reached," he said.
He pointed to President Donald Trump's scheduled White House meeting with congressional leaders on Monday as a key step.
"Ultimately, those Democrats have to make a decision," Scalise said. "Do they want to shut down the government to appease their radical base ... or are they going to work with the president to keep negotiations going?"
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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