The House Freedom Caucus is putting the “finishing touches” on a proposal to freeze government funding levels for another year — and potentially through the 2026 midterm elections, the group’s chairman said Thursday.
Annual discretionary spending has totaled $1.6 trillion since fiscal 2024. The GOP-led Congress enacted a yearlong funding stopgap for fiscal 2025, which kept that top-line in place.
The Freedom Caucus wants to do the same for fiscal 2026, which begins Oct. 1, to prevent funding increases Democrats are demanding.
“The most important principle is not to increase funding above FY 24 levels,” said House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris on Thursday from the sidelines of a policy conference. The group’s foundation, a separate educational nonprofit, was holding the conference to celebrate the caucus’ 10th anniversary.
Achieving level funding for the third straight year could create a “significant dent” in spending because the Congressional Budget Office assumes that discretionary funding will increase each year, the Maryland Republican said. Holding funding flat would save $400 billion to $500 billion over a decade under the CBO’s baseline, he said.
Congress must enact a government funding bill by the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year to avoid a shutdown.
Mr. Harris said the Freedom Caucus not only supports a yearlong funding stopgap, known as a continuing resolution or CR, but is discussing a slightly longer extension running beyond next Sept. 30 to last through the November 2026 midterm elections.
“Why put the American people through the Chuck Schumer drama in September 2026 of a potential government shutdown when we can just extend funding past the election?” he said.
Mr. Harris floated Dec. 1, 2026, as a potential end date but said the caucus is “still working the details on that.”
“We believe that’s not very difficult to accomplish, and we think that would serve the American people well,” he said. “And we could always revisit the funding. I mean, if we want to pass appropriations bills next year … you can. It would supersede the continuing resolution. But this would provide certainty of government funding.”
Mr. Harris shared the details of the emerging plan during a break in the Freedom Caucus Foundation’s policy conference, just after right-wing commentator Steve Bannon addressed the group over lunch.
Mr. Bannon, host of “War Room” and a former chief strategist for President Trump, urged the Freedom Caucus to use its leverage in the September funding fight to prevent lawmakers from returning to the practice of increasing spending each year.
“The solution is in this room,” he said. “If anyone is to draw a tough line, it’s the Freedom Caucus.”
To be successful, Mr. Bannon argued the Freedom Caucus needs to work with the White House on a plan and sell it to Mr. Trump quickly.
“You guys are the deciding vote,” he said, referring to the group’s sway given the narrow House GOP majority. “If you decide, ‘I can’t do it’ [and] stick together, you can’t pass the CR, then changes will be made just like the Big Beautiful Bill.”
Mr. Harris said the Freedom Caucus has already begun discussions with the White House, which is opposed to a short-term stopgap that would set Congress up for a year-end, holiday-crunch deadline as has occurred in previous administrations.
“I think they want the certainty of a longer funding bill also,” he said.
Congressional Republican leaders have yet to embrace any specific funding strategy as they get input from the White House and disparate factions of their party.
The top Republicans on the appropriations committees, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Susan M. Collins of Maine, have said they would prefer a partial stopgap lasting into mid-November to buy more time to negotiate new funding bills for fiscal 2026. They even hope to include up to three of those funding bills — ones funding the Agriculture and Veterans Affairs Departments and the legislative branch — in a CR that would extend current funding levels for the other nine annual appropriations bills.
Mr. Harris said he is not opposed to attaching those three bills and giving appropriators until mid-November to try to work out a deal, but he’s skeptical they’ll be able to reach one given Democrats’ positioning against the Trump administration’s use of the rescissions process to cut spending Congress previously approved.
“They threaten, ‘Well, there’s another rescissions bill, we can’t in good faith negotiate appropriations.’ Well, if that’s your position, then it doesn’t make a difference how short-term you do it, or to when, we’re probably going to end up with a long-term CR,” he said.
The Freedom Caucus chairman said he’s also spoken with House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, who is open to the possibility of extending funding beyond the 2026 midterms if a long-term CR is deemed necessary.
“If we have to, I think he thinks it’s a very interesting idea to just again, not put the American people through this next September, just go ‘til next December,” Mr. Harris said.
Some Freedom Caucus members, like Rep. Keith Self of Texas, said they would love to go beyond their minimum goal of flat funding if possible.
The Trump administration’s “skinny budget” that proposed cutting $163 billion in nondefense discretionary funding has “frankly, disappeared,” Mr. Self said. “I ask people about it, and they say, ‘Well, I don’t think it’s working.’ So we need to get with the administration to make sure that we are at least flat. But yeah, we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
Freedom Caucus members acknowledge their emerging proposal may not be the final iteration of the GOP plan, given that any government funding bill has to get past a Democratic filibuster in the Senate, which would require a minimum of seven Democrats to vote with Republicans on any funding stopgap.
“In the world of Chuck Schumer gets a vote, that’s an unfortunate reality, but that’s reality, right? So you got to figure out how to work around that, right?” said Rep. Scott Perry, Pennsylvania Republican. “I’m an Army guy; no plan survives first contact. The enemy gets a vote.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.