Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey said Sunday that a bipartisan short-term government funding bill is the best path to averting a shutdown this week, highlighting the challenges congressional Republicans potentially face in advancing a plan without Democratic votes.
“Republicans are in charge of this process right now,” Kim told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
Kim accused House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose GOP leadership team unveiled a Trump-backed stopgap bill on Saturday, of walking away from “ongoing” bipartisan talks.
The senator said he would prefer to vote for a bill that extends current funding levels for 30 days, so bipartisan negotiations could continue over a longer-term plan, instead of Johnson’s plan to “kick the can down the road” to the end of the fiscal year.
Pressed by Tapper on whether he would vote against the House GOP plan, which also includes $6 billion for defense spending and $13 billion in cuts to domestic spending, if it comes to the Senate floor, Kim said, “That’s not what I’m saying,” adding, “We need to see what happens in the House.”
Kim speculated that Johnson may not be able to secure the GOP votes needed to pass a bill with his narrow majority, saying the speaker is “very bad at keeping his caucus together.”
Senate spending negotiators have been working in recent weeks on a shorter-term bipartisan funding bill, though appropriations legislation must ultimately be launched in the House, where Democratic leaders have already thrown cold water on Johnson’s plan, signaling he can’t afford to lose virtually any Republican votes.
Key GOP lawmaker weighs in: The Republican co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that he remains undecided and is still “digging through” the measure.
Fitzpatrick said ideally he would have liked to see a bipartisan bill that did not have such a thin margin for success in funding the government.
CNN’s Aileen Graef contributed reporting to this post.
