Speaker Johnson says no DOGE cuts in stopgap funding bill; savings to come next fiscal year

House Republicans’ coming stopgap spending bill extending last year’s government funding levels through the end of September will not include any savings the new Department of Government Efficiency says it has found in the first two months of the Trump administration.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said lawmakers “don’t have time to calculate” all the DOGE savings across a wide array of government agencies ahead of the March 14 deadline to pass a funding bill for the remainder of fiscal 2025 and avoid a government shutdown.

The federal government has been running on stopgap funding bills extending fiscal 2024 levels and policies since the new fiscal year started Oct. 1. Mr. Johnson is planning a third stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution or CR, that will extend that funding through Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2025.

“A clean CR allows us to avoid a government shutdown, which isn’t good for anyone, while the DOGE effort continues,” he said. “It’s really critical work finding fraud, waste misuse throughout the government. So what the DOGE effort will do is prepare recommendations for FY 2026. We have to get FY 2025 done.”

That would give Congress another six months to work on fiscal 2026 spending bills that implement DOGE’s suggestions, although Mr. Johnson suggested the White House could request “rescissions” cutting already approved money for programs that DOGE has found to be wasteful or abusive.

“We will not be funding fraud, waste, abuse that’s already been discovered,” he said. “As soon as that is qualified and quantified, it will be codified — in that sequence.”

Mr. Johnson’s CR is not guaranteed to pass, as he will either need Democratic support or near unity from Republicans, who hold a razor-thin majority in the chamber.

Democratic appropriators have said they oppose a CR for the rest of the fiscal year but are open to a shorter-term stopgap to provide more time for negotiations on new fiscal 2025 funding bills. It is not clear whether all Democrats would vote against a CR running through September, however.

Democratic leaders have been coy about their plans, but have said it is Republicans as the majority party who have the votes to keep the government open.

“Democrats do not have the ability to shut down [the] government,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar said.

“We stand, as we always do, willing to be partners in every aspect of governance,” the California congressman said. “But Republicans have the responsibility here.”

Mr. Aguilar said neither Mr. Johnson nor the Trump administration has reached out to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to ask Democrats to support their plan.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota said Republicans are prepared to pass the CR on their own, despite a thin majority in which they can only afford one defection on party-line votes. A vote is tentatively planned for next Tuesday, he said.

“We’ll pass it with Republican votes,” Mr. Emmer told The Washington Times. “That’s what we got to do.”

That’s a tall task given a handful of House Republicans who typically oppose CRs. At least one has already come out against the bill before it has even been unveiled.

“I am a NO on the CR,” Rep. Tony Gonzales, Texas Republican, said on social media. “Congress needs to do its job and pass a conservative budget! CR’s are code for Continued Rubberstamp of fraud, waste, and abuse.”

President Trump is set to meet at the White House Wednesday with a group of Republicans who need convincing.

“Let’s get it done!” the president said in a social media post last week endorsing a “clean, temporary government funding bill (“CR”) to the end of September.”