What Dems are demanding as they finally get leverage in race to prevent government shutdown

Congressional Democrats want to make sure President Donald Trump and his administration don’t attempt to impound, or choose not to spend some of the money that is allocated in a new spending bill to avoid a government shutdown on the March 14 deadline. 

They are specifically demanding assurance that Trump spends the money as Congress has appropriated, and this could take shape in a provision in the bill to stop the government from shutting down next month, four sources familiar with the discussions shared with Fox News Digital. 

The demand comes as Trump and congressional Democrats continue to feud over the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which reasserted Congress’ power of the purse and barred the executive branch from holding back any appropriated funds. 

EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP WARNS MAJOR DEM AGAINST MOVE THAT COULD COST VOTERS TRILLIONS

Democrats are looking to prevent Trump’s administration from interfering with money appropriated by Congress as DOGE sparks fears. (Reuters)

However, some constitutional scholars have argued this law was unconstitutional, a philosophy that Trump and his Office of Management and Budget (OMB) chief Russell Vought share. 

The clash over impoundment could eventually prompt the courts to rule on it. 

“The administration will not accept infringement on its lawful or constitutional authorities,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital in a statement.

“Yeah, I think we’re looking through and considering all the various possibilities at this point of how to comply with it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

“And again, I remind people, we’re in this situation because the Democrats didn’t move a single appropriation bill last year across the floor, even though 11 of them had been passed by the committee. So this is a pileup that they created, and now we have to try and figure out how to manage. But we’ll sort it out and figure out how to keep the government funded,” he added.

ETHICS WATCHDOG FLAGS SENATOR HELPING MAKE MILLIONS FOR WIFE’S GREEN NONPROFIT

Thune pointed to 11 bills that were never brought to the floor last Congress. (Getty Images)

As the majority leader referenced, the government has been funded largely through stopgap spending bills in recent years, with the Democrats unwilling to bring appropriations bills to the floor when they were at the helm in the previous Congress. 

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., spoke up during the GOP conference meeting on Tuesday, telling his colleagues that Democrats were asking for too high a price in negotiations that is restraining Trump’s authority, a Republican lawmaker shared with Fox News Digital.

“We cannot just reach an agreement, pass a bill, and then stand by while President Trump rips our laws in half,” Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., said recently, her office noted. “There is a serious, bipartisan path forward for our country – but it is one where Congress works together to avoid a shutdown, stops the de facto shutdown that is already happening, and reasserts its authority to protect the funding our communities need.” 

TRUMP TAX CUT PLAN HITS TURBULENCE AHEAD OF HOUSE VOTE AS REPUBLICANS SPLIT

Cole is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. (Getty Images)

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, also previously told reporters that Democrats’ request for guarantees from the Trump administration is “certainly a major issue,” as her office referenced. 

She explained, “There’s still not agreement. We’re close, but there’s still not agreement on the topline and the allocation under that for defense and non-defense. I’ve made four different offers. The last one was a joint offer with Tom Cole, and it was a very fair offer, as were all the others.”

Democrats are in a position they haven’t been in the first several weeks of the new Congress as the two parties attempt to negotiate a spending bill to prevent a partial government shutdown: They have leverage. 

FOLLOWING KEY WINS, TRUMP POISED FOR CABINET COMPLETION IN RECORD TIME

Sen. Susan Collins (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Republicans are going to need some level of Democratic support for a spending bill in order to get it through the House and Senate. Sixty votes are needed in the Senate, meaning at least seven Democrats will need to back the bill, provided that all Republicans also support it. In the House, only a majority is needed, but full Republican support of any bill is not guaranteed. 

With that in mind, Democrats are using their position to try and rein in Trump’s actions as it relates to shaking up the federal bureaucracy and canceling spending and contracts through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which billionaire Elon Musk was tapped to lead. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The White House, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, and Cole did not provide comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication.