Congressional Republicans have proposed $88m in new security spending for lawmakers, judges and top government officials in response to the shooting of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, but the money has been caught up in a partisan battle over government funding that could spark a shutdown.
The funds are included in a stopgap measure Republicans in the House of Representatives released on Tuesday that would keep the government open through 21 November without making major changes to policy, and gives negotiators time to work out a long-term deal. Under the proposal, an additional $30m would be available for security for members of Congress, another $30m would go towards protective services for executive branch employees and $28m would be spent on security for supreme court justices.
“The tragedy has also initiated a number of uncomfortable but necessary conversations about important issues like the safety and security of our members,” the Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, said ahead of the proposal’s release on Tuesday.
But Democrats have hit out against the short-term funding proposal, saying they will not vote for it unless it addresses their healthcare priorities. These include an extension of subsidies for Affordable Care Act insurance plans, and the undoing of cuts to the Medicaid program for poor and disabled Americans Republicans approved earlier this year as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“The House Republican-only spending bill fails to meet the needs of the American people and does nothing to stop the looming healthcare crisis,” the top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, and his House counterpart, Hakeem Jeffries, said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
While Republicans can pass legislation through the House with a simple majority, Democrats can block most bills in the Senate with a filibuster, meaning the spending legislation needs at least some of their votes to advance.
“President Trump called the play last week when he told congressional Republicans to jam a partisan spending bill down the throats of the American people without Democratic support,” Schumer and Jeffries said, accusing Republicans of “steering our country straight toward a shutdown”.
GOP leaders have rejected the Democratic demands. However, some Republican lawmakers have expressed public concerns about the possibility of premium increases for ACA plans if the subsidies are not extended, and in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, Johnson said the issue could be sorted out near the end of the year.
“They’re trying to insert unrelated matters into the middle of a clean government extension, and I don’t think that’s going to work,” the speaker said.
“If the government is shut down because they make that their last stand, it will solely be blamed on Democrats, because we’re not playing politics with this at all. We’re just trying to keep the lights on.”
The issue of increased security funding appears to have bipartisan support. At a press conference on Tuesday, the House Democratic caucus chair, Pete Aguilar, described it as “something that members care about”.
• This article was amended on 17 September 2025. Mike Johnson talked about ACA plans in an interview on CNBC, not MSNBC, as previously stated.
