House Speaker Mike Johnson said the Republican-led Congress is unlikely to pass new spending bills for the current fiscal year because of “unreasonable” demands that Democrats have made in ongoing government funding negotiations.

The previous Congress, which was split between a Republican-led House and Democratic-led Senate, already passed two stopgap funding bills last year extending fiscal 2024 funding levels and policies into fiscal 2025, which started Oct. 1. 

With the latest stopgap set to expire on March 14, the prospect of a third extension that would run through the remainder of the fiscal year “is becoming inevitable at this point,” Mr. Johnson told reporters Wednesday evening. 

“That’s because the Democrats are placing completely unreasonable conditions on the negotiations,” the Louisiana Republican said. “They want us to limit the scope of executive authority. They want us to tie the hands of the president.”

The speaker added: “It looks like they’re trying to push us into a shutdown scenario.”

Democrats have pushed to add language to the 12 annual spending bills restricting President Trump from ignoring or shifting funding that Congress approves. 

They accuse the president and his Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk, of taking a “meat ax” to the federal government by freezing funds to programs they don’t like and firing workers across the executive branch. 

Mr. Johnson said one of the conditions Democrats have floated in the negotiations is stipulating how many employees each executive agency is required to employ.

“That’s just totally unprecedented. It’s inappropriate,” he said. “I think it’s unconstitutional. I think it’d be a violation of separation of powers. So they’re insisting upon conditions that they know full well cannot be delivered.”

Democrats have said their goal is to protect Congress’ constitutional power of the purse amid a DOGE onslaught they believe violates spending laws.

Most Republicans have defended DOGE as operating under the president’s authority and criticized courts who have issued rulings that say otherwise. 

GOP lawmakers have shown no appetite to pass new laws, through the spending bills or otherwise, to restrict DOGE or Mr. Trump from pursuing deep cuts to the federal bureaucracy. 

“The executive branch always has the discretion and authority to determine how to spend, who to hire, and all those things,” Mr. Johnson said. “It is not the legislative branch’s prerogative to dictate to the executive how to run their branch. And that’s always been a principle that we’ve maintained here in appropriations and in every other process.”

Democrats would still need to sign off on another funding extension, known as a continuing resolution or CR. They oppose one that runs through the end of the fiscal year, creating an effective year-long CR. 

“I’ve been abundantly clear I will not support that,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. 

She confirmed that negotiators remained at an impasse regarding the language to protect Congress’ power of the purse but that she will continue to push for a bipartisan deal on new fiscal 2025 funding bills. 

“I am not walking away from the table,” Ms. Murray said.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, Maine Republican, also is opposed to a year-long CR. 

When the Washington Times asked her about Mr. Johnson’s comment that one was becoming inevitable at this point, she said, “he thinks that. That is not my view.”

“CRs always create a lot of unintended consequences,” Ms. Collins said. 

She also said that appropriators are close to a deal on spending levels for fiscal 2025, despite the impasse over the language Democrats are seeking. 

Mr. Johnson said if Congress does pass another stopgap extending current funding levels it would likely not be the vehicle for codifying savings DOGE has found.

“I don’t know if we can get it into the CR,” he said, noting the measure would probably be “as close to a clean CR as possible because that’s the most reasonable thing to do to ensure that the government does not shut down.”

• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.