Could Congress punt on funding for the year?

IN THIS EDITION

Washington begins to confront the funding unthinkable

North Carolina redistricting could lead to member clash

The Vault: The Senate tries to reset crypto talks

ICYMI: The Creator Economy

THE TOP

Washington begins to confront the funding unthinkable

Happy Wednesday morning.

It’s Day 22 of the government shutdown. There’s no resolution in sight to this crisis.

The Senate will vote on the House-passed Nov. 21 CR for the 12th time later today. The result won’t be any different than the 11 previous votes.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) has been speaking on the floor since roughly 6:20 p.m. in protest of President Donald Trump’s policies. That’s about 11 hours when this edition went out.

On Thursday, the Senate is set to vote on a bill from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) mandating paychecks for military service members and “excepted” federal employees who’ve been forced to work during the shutdown.

Democrats will filibuster the measure, arguing it only empowers Trump while failing to make a similar guarantee for hundreds of thousands of furloughed employees. Democrats will offer their own proposal covering furloughed workers and everyone else. That’s not going anywhere either.

Then, absent something truly unexpected, the Senate will leave for the weekend on Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, federal workers will miss a full paycheck on Oct. 24 as the shutdown fallout gets worse.

The funding nightmare. This unprecedented full-government shutdown is forcing congressional leaders and appropriators to grapple with what can only be described as their nightmare scenario: A year-long continuing resolution set at funding levels from the Biden administration.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s efforts to pass full-year FY2026 funding bills are facing serious headwinds. Democrats blocked the full-year Pentagon funding bill last week, and some Republicans are continuing to stand in the way of a package of three other spending measures: MilCon-Va, Agriculture and Legislative Branch.

Thune has already said the House should consider returning to Washington to pass a new CR that extends beyond Nov. 21. That’s Thune facing the reality that even if the impasse miraculously ended today, there’s little chance that Congress could pass 12 funding bills or an omnibus package or some mix of both by that date.

That’s also without doing anything about resolving the issue at the heart of this clash — the expiring Obamacare premium subsidies, which run out at the end of the year.

The seemingly never-ending shutdown is making Thune and GOP appropriators increasingly skeptical — and dejected — over the prospect of a bipartisan funding deal.

“We need to get the government open and get to work on the appropriations process, or some of these alternatives that none of us want to see happen become more real,” Thune told us on Tuesday. “The longer these guys drag this out, the harder it becomes to see a path where we do it the old-fashioned way. But that’s what we’re trying to do here.”

A full-year CR would be an incredibly difficult task for House Republican leadership, as well. Speaker Mike Johnson has centered his entire speakership around ridding the institution of CRs.

Defense hawks would scream about the damage that the measure would inflict on the Pentagon. It would be a herculean effort for Johnson to jam through this measure. Only Trump’s personal lobbying would make a difference.

Yet Johnson would have problems with individual spending bills negotiated with the Senate too. The Senate’s funding proposals cost way more than House Republicans are willing to spend by tens of billions of dollars.

The funding crisis is especially acute for Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has seen the Trump administration trample on Congress’ power of the purse and make her panel less relevant.

Collins has spoken out against the White House’s unilateral funding moves, including the so-called “pocket rescissions” effort last month. Collins also voted against the rescissions package earlier this year.

A year-long CR would mean no earmarks either — a major loss for Maine and for Collins, who’s up for reelection next year.

“I share the extreme frustration of Leader Thune, but I do not support a year-long CR,” Collins said.

Thune has gone along with the Trump’s administration’s posture on cutting spending even though he clearly doesn’t love it. At the same time, Thune is doubling down on his desire to pass bipartisan full-year funding bills that came out of the Appropriations Committee with big bipartisan majorities. The bills include many Democratic wins.

“If the Democrats keep this up, they will make it not only a possibility, they will make it an inevitability,” warned Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), an appropriator. “We’ll have no choice but to end up with a CR.”

But Democrats say they see no reason to trust GOP leaders given their refusal to condemn or try to block the administration’s funding moves. The trust deficit between the two sides was bad before the shutdown, and it’s only gotten worse over the last three weeks. There’s still no agreement on FY2026 toplines either. Those require House buy-in.

“There’s bipartisan desire to get something done and avoid a full-year CR,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), an appropriator. “It’s a little hard to get to toplines and to move any further in the regular order … I think [the House has] worked 11 of the last 90 days if I’m not mistaken. So, the House has to show up.”

There are some Democrats who are holding out hope for a bipartisan process, even as they maintain their hardline posture vis-à-vis the shutdown.

But if the eventual shutdown-ending funding bill extends current funding until early 2026, some senators don’t see a year-long CR as inevitable. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), an Appropriations Committee member, noted that Congress has “routinely” gone well into the next calendar year before passing a funding measure for the rest of the fiscal year.

— Andrew Desiderio, Samantha Handler and Jake Sherman

Join us tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. ET for a conversation with Reps. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.). Punchbowl News Founder and CEO Anna Palmer will sit down with Griffith and DeGette to discuss the news of the day and their efforts to advance policy for cancer prevention and early detection. RSVP!

REDISTRICTING WATCH

North Carolina redistricting could lead to member clash

North Carolina Republicans’ redistricting effort could tee up a member-on-member race, and the new map already has tensions running high.

Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) has been considering switching from his current seat, the 3rd District, to run in the 1st District.

But the White House rejected the idea and made clear to Murphy he should seek reelection in his district, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the conversations.

“We expect him to run in his current district, which is the district we will back him to run in,” a White House official told us.

Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.) is considering running in either the 1st or 3rd District and hasn’t taken any options off the table, according to his team. That means the contest in the new 3rd could turn into a contest between two formidable incumbents.

District changes. North Carolina’s new map, which passed the state Senate on Tuesday and is teed up in the state House today, made major changes to both districts. Republicans’ goal in the redistricting push is to draw Davis out of a seat.

Under the map, most of the coast and Outer Banks shifted from Murphy’s seat to Davis’. That’s a big deal for Murphy, who has prioritized coastal issues in Congress. The new 3rd district is now more of an agricultural district than it was before.

The map also moved Davis’ home and the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, a top priority for the Democrat, into the 3rd District. Still, Davis could stick to his current seat, which is slightly less red and retained other military installations. Candidates don’t have to run in the district where they reside.

Murphy didn’t rule out his own district switch during an interview with a local North Carolina radio station on Tuesday, but White House opposition could make that difficult.

A Murphy spokesperson declined to comment.

“I was really disappointed,” Murphy said on the radio show. “The way the Senate drew the map in Raleigh basically took the 3rd District and split it in half. This has always been a coastal district.”

Murphy mentioned that he’s owned a house on the coast for over three decades and was planning to move there. The four-term GOP lawmaker’s primary home remains in the 3rd District. Murphy added that he’s meeting with White House officials on Wednesday and will then make a decision on where to run.

The GOP’s calculus. Murphy seeking reelection in the 3rd District could make things smoother for Republicans on several fronts.

President Donald Trump would’ve carried the new 1st District by 11 points in 2024, compared to three points under the old map. The 3rd District will go from a Trump +21 seat to a Trump +13. That makes both seats very winnable for Republicans.

But Davis is viewed as a strong Democratic challenger. Having Murphy, the incumbent, run against him gives an extra boost to the GOP.

Republican candidates have already lined up to challenge Davis in the 1st District, so the GOP has a bench ready to go.

— Laura Weiss, Max Cohen and Ally Mutnick

THE CREATOR ECONOMY

ICYMI: The Creator Economy

We recently posted Offline to Online, the fourth and (sadly) final part of our special project, The Creator Economy, in partnership with YouTube.

Throughout the series, we’ve spoken with content creators about how online platforms have changed their businesses, while hearing from lawmakers about the evolving policy landscape.

In the latest feature, we spoke to the Andrianos family behind the Hercules Candy shop in East Syracuse, N.Y.

They told us how posting on YouTube with goofy candy-making videos helped them grow their staff, their space and the reach of their sales.

We also heard from Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), who chairs the House Small Business Committee, about what he wants to do to clear the way for all kinds of creators, but especially Main Street storefronts that want to go online.

And of course, we have a podcast episode you should check out, plus our prior three features from the series: Content to Commerce with Cassey Ho, Entertainment’s New Era with Dude Perfect CEO Andrew Yaffe and Setting the Stage with Cowboy Kent Rollins.

— Ben Brody

THE CAMPAIGN

Ad news: Michigan Families for Fair Care is running a $385,000 ad campaign blaming higher prices on GOP freshman Rep. Tom Barrett (Mich.).

“Republicans in Congress want to more than double our health care costs and shut down the government to make it happen,” the ad’s narrator says.

The Money Game: Matt Schultz, a Democrat running to knock off Rep. Nick Begich (R-Alaska), raised $100,000 in the first 24 hours of his campaign.

— Max Cohen

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