GOP Budget Clawbacks Undermine Bipartisan Process, Democrats Say

Republicans said that the rescissions are modest and fiscally responsible, and that they have been committed to a bipartisan appropriations process.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) listens as Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on June 11, 2025. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Top Democrats in Congress say they remain united behind a bipartisan, bicameral path to fund the government, but they say recently passed Republican-backed funding clawbacks could make that harder to achieve.

In a joint press conference on July 22, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) criticized the GOP’s approach to federal spending, specifically pointing to the $9 billion rescissions package passed by the House and Senate this past week.

Backed by Republican leadership, the measure cuts funding across several programs and was signed by President Donald Trump after passing the House 216–213.

The bill includes $1.1 billion in cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other reductions recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Schumer said the rescissions effort—and what he described as a lack of engagement from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)—could undermine any chance of bipartisan negotiations.

“We all want to pursue a bipartisan, bicameral appropriations process,” Schumer said. “That’s how it’s always been done successfully and we believe that should happen. However, the Republicans are making it extremely difficult to do that.”

Jeffries then said that House Republicans are “marching us toward a possible government shutdown” and later said the rescission bill “rips health care away from the American people [and] steals food from the mouths of hungry children.”

Senate Republicans said the rescissions are modest and fiscally responsible.

“The Democrats have indicated, because they’re so upset over the rescissions bill last week—which, by the way, cut one-tenth of 1 percent of all federal spending—that somehow they can use that as an excuse to shut down the appropriations process and therefore shut down the government,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in a statement to The Epoch Times.

“We think that would be a big mistake, and hopefully they will think better of it and work with us.”

Thune added, “We’re trying to give [Democrats] what they’ve been asking for, is a bipartisan appropriations process, which, frankly, I think a lot of us around here think is long overdue.”

A Thune aide also noted that under Schumer’s leadership last year, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed 11 of 12 funding bills, none of which reached the Senate floor. Thune has pledged to bring those bills to a vote.

Democratic appropriators Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) accused their Republican counterparts of showing little interest in meaningful negotiation.

“It’s not a negotiation,” DeLauro said. “It’s a bill that comes forward that does not look to be bipartisan.”

Although some proposed cuts—such as a reduction to the PEPFAR HIV/AIDS program—were dropped in the Senate to secure passage, Republicans said more rescissions may follow.

“I think it’s likely you’ll see an additional package,” Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought said this past week.

Asked on July 22 whether Senate Democrats would support another continuing resolution bill—which can temporarily fund the government at existing funding levels—if House Republicans send one in September, Schumer declined to say, reiterating that the responsibility lies with the GOP.

Schumer and several other Democrats joined with Republicans to pass a continuing resolution to avoid a shutdown in March, which unleashed criticism of Schumer at the time.

Jackson Richman, Nathan Worcester, and Joseph Lord contributed to this report.