These new restrictions-which can be found throughout the appropriations bill for the Department of Education and other sections of the 11-part funding package that was signed into law last week-are part of what policy experts describe as a bipartisan attempt to rebuke the Trump administration's budget proposal and restore Congress's power of the purse. Historically, the language of these budget bills has largely stayed the same, serving as little more than a template into which lawmakers plug that year's dollar amounts and policy riders.
The intrigue: It's not just the members who spoke up on the call who are questioning their party's refusal to even come to the negotiating table with Democrats. "I do think we should be negotiating the ACA tax credits and have that compromise to put in the Approps bills," Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a retiring centrist, told Axios. "We don't need [it] for the CR, but if we all negotiate in good faith within the Approps process, we may break the ice jam."
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a representative of Georgia, on Monday morning criticized Johnson's strategy, calling on the House to return to session immediately. The House should be in session working, Greene wrote on X. We should be finishing appropriations. Our committees should be working. We should be passing bills that make President Trump's executive orders permanent. I have no respect for the decision to refuse to work.
A letter from Acting IRS Human Capital Officer David Traynor to IRS employees stated that although workers would be "placed in non-pay and non-duty status during the furlough," GEFTA requires that federal workers who are "furloughed or required to work during a lapse in appropriations to be compensated for the period of the lapse." It adds that they must be compensated on the "earliest date possible" after the lapse comes to a close.
The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, said that the "asserted harms" to Trump's conduct of foreign affairs "appear to outweigh the potential harm" faced by potential recipients of the foreign aid. The court said the emergency order is not a "final determination" on the freeze, as it plays out in the lower courts. "The relief granted by the Court today reflects our preliminary view, consistent with the standards for interim relief," the Supreme Court order said.
The President's FY '26 National Defense Budget requests $1.01 trillion, which is a 13 percent increase from FY '25 enacted levels. This includes $848.3 billion for DoD's discretionary budget and $113.3 billion in mandatory funding for DoD.