Warren won’t support government funding bills, wants Dems to join her

Democrats said this could happen. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., announced she would not participate in a bipartisan government appropriations process this year, and she’s calling on Democrats to join her.

“Do we really look that gullible? Why should Democrats come to the table and negotiate in good faith and throw our support behind a quote unquote bipartisan bill?” Warren said during a speech on the Senate floor. 

Congress has to pass legislation to fund the government every year. They are supposed to approve twelve separate bills, each of which funds specific departments and agencies. 

Warren said she can’t support any one of those twelve bills because she can’t trust Republicans to uphold their end of the bargain. 

“The promises themselves won’t be worth the paper they are printed on,” Warren said. “Democrats should tell Republicans that if they want our votes, then they’re going to have to guarantee that the deal we strike actually means something.” 

Here’s what Warren’s talking about:  

Appropriations bills need 60 votes to be approved. There are only 53 Republicans in the Senate, so that means they need at least seven Democrats to join them. 

Naturally, they need to give the Democrats something they want to get Democratic support. 

Reconciliation and rescissions packages, though, only require a simple majority. Republicans can pass legislation to cut the budget without any input from Democrats. 

Republicans just did that twice just this month. They passed a reconciliation bill to make cuts to the budget that will impact the federal government for the next decade. They also passed a $9 billion rescissions bill that cut budget items that impact the more immediate future. 

Warren outlined how she thinks it will go in 2026 –  

• “Step one – Congress negotiates a compromise that both Republicans and Democrats support, and it’s signed into law.” 
• “Step two – Trump tells Republicans what parts of that deal that he wants to cancel.” 
• “Step three – Republicans in the Senate bend the knee and follow Trump’s orders to cancel the money.” 
• “Step four is Republicans turn around and with a straight face, ask Democrats to negotiate more deals for the next year’s funding, starting the whole rinse and repeat process.” 

Straight Arrow News asked Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., what he would say to convince Democrats to join in the appropriations process. 

“Well, we need to get back to regular order. I’ve been talking about that. We didn’t see that under Chuck Schumer, there were no appropriations bills that were really debated on the floor. And I think Leader Thune, that’s what he wants to do, and I think that’s good for everybody,” Schmitt said. 

Regular order is approving each of the 12 bills separately, rather than having one large funding package, known as an omnibus, close to the deadline.

“The Democrats, many of them, are competing to be sort of the resistor-in-chief. And if that’s what they want to make their brand, I just don’t think it’s going to connect with the American people,” Schmitt added. 

Democrats have been warning Republicans that further cuts to what were initially bipartisan agreements could have consequences. So far, Warren is the only one to announce she will not support fiscal year 2026 funding.