WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader John Thune intends to postpone progress on a major House Republican bill until the Senate can figure out a way to temporarily keep the government afloat through the fall. Thune hopes to negotiate with Democrats to pass a bipartisan, temporary extension of current government funding levels, known as a continuing resolution, through the fall.

Thune has floated a procedural maneuver that would use the House’s reconciliation bill to pass a funding extension without Democratic buy-in if a bipartisan agreement cannot be achieved. Senate Appropriations Committee ranking Democrat Patty Murray stated she would be interested in working with Republicans on a bipartisan continuing resolution.

Senator Raphael Warnock stated it would be preferable to avoid a party-line exercise like reconciliation. Representative Suhas Subramanyam said he wished they did not budget this way.

"When you move to CRs, then you start using reconciliation for budgeting, and it really distorts the whole process. We need to go back and make regular order more common," Senator Thom Tillis said. Republicans hold a majority in both chambers of Congress.

The deadline for Congress to pass government funding is the end of September. A 43-day government shutdown occurred last year.

There have been three federal government shutdowns during President Donald Trump’s second term. The first Trump administration saw a 35-day government shutdown.

The government shut down for 16 days in 2013 during the Obama administration. An Ipsos poll conducted in November 2025 found that Americans were more likely to say that Republicans in Congress were to blame for the 2025 shutdown than Democrats.

Republicans were blamed for a 76-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. In 2026, House Republicans used reconciliation to fund the Department of Homeland Security on a party-line vote after a 76-day partial shutdown triggered by fatal shootings by immigration agents.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune previously threatened to use reconciliation to pass a government funding bill without Democratic support after failing to secure a bipartisan agreement, as seen in the 2026 DHS funding dispute. House Republicans have historically relied on reconciliation to fund disputed agencies, such as the $70 billion allocation for ICE and CBP through 2024 under President Trump’s term.

The strategy outlined by Senate leadership shows the tension between pursuing partisan legislative tools and seeking bipartisan cooperation to maintain government operations. With Republicans holding a majority in both chambers of Congress and the September deadline approaching, the choice between a continuing resolution and unilateral reconciliation carries significant procedural and political implications.

Historical precedents, including multiple shutdowns during President Donald Trump’s terms and the 2013 closure under the Obama administration, demonstrate the recurring challenges of federal budget negotiations. The use of reconciliation for funding, as seen in the 2026 Department of Homeland Security dispute, remains a disputed option that some lawmakers argue distorts the regular budgeting process.