GOP rebels fire warning shot in shutdown showdown: No DOGE, no deal
Conservatives tell GOP leaders, 'We will not support a government funding package that would be weaponized against President Trump'
By Julia Johnson , Elizabeth Elkind Fox News
Published March 4, 2025 10:29am EST
FIRST ON FOX: A group of conservative lawmakers in the House and Senate is warning Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., against agreeing to restrict the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in a spending bill as the government shutdown deadline of March 14 inches closer.
The sometimes-resistant batch of Republicans is also committing to backing a clean stopgap bill for the rest of the fiscal year to avoid a shutdown, which they've opposed in the past.
"[W]e are deeply concerned about recent reports of Democrats’ demands for a government funding agreement that would perpetuate the unsustainable status quo of wasteful spending," Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., joined by several others, wrote to the congressional leaders.
The group of signers included several fiscal hawks in the House and Senate, many of whom have opposed stopgap spending bills on principle, preferring full-year appropriations bills.
"Any attempt to use government funding legislation to dilute the President’s constitutional authority to save taxpayer dollars must be rejected outright," the lawmakers wrote.
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