Democrats are looking to prevent President Donald Trump from “illegally withholding or diverting funding” appropriated in the Republican-led continuing resolution set for a vote on Tuesday through an eleventh-hour amendment.
Introduced by Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) on Monday, the amendment would ensure that the president “recognizes, and states that they will uphold, Congress’ constitutional authority to authorize and appropriate funds and will disburse those funds faithfully and in full.”
In a release, Friedman said Trump has “regularly disregarded this authority by withholding congressionally approved investments and redirecting tax-payer dollars to his own agenda.”
“Republicans put these funding levels in their own bill,” Friedman said in a statement. “Now they have a choice: stand by the Constitution and ensure these funds are spent as directed by law, or enable Trump’s lawlessness and undermine Congress and the Constitution. Any Republican who refuses to support this is complicit in lawbreaking that has been repeatedly rejected by our courts.”
The amendment has 60 Democratic co-sponsors, including House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Ted Lieu (D-CA) and members of both the center-left New Democrat Coalition and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
House Republicans are strongly advocating the CR as a temporary fix to keep government operations open after bipartisan congressional appropriators were unable to come to a budget agreement on a top-line number for fiscal 2025, which has prevented Congress from moving forward on individual spending bills.
The GOP has blamed the breakdown in talks on Democrats’ requests to place limitations on Trump’s executive authority, calling it a “nonstarter.”
With a razor-thin majority, Johnson can only afford to lose two Republicans if he wishes to pass the CR along party lines. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has repeatedly said he is a “no” on the measure, with a few other Republicans still holding out on whether they will vote in favor of the spending deal.
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If more than two GOP lawmakers vote “no,” Johnson will require Democratic votes. Though placing Friedman’s amendment into the CR would likely incentivize Democrats to vote for it, it is unlikely Republicans will allow it to become part of the spending bill’s text.
The amendment will likely come up for a vote when the House votes on both the procedural rule and final passage Tuesday.