Things are getting interesting on Capitol Hill as Democratic leaders consider forcing a government shutdown, and President Trump calls on the Senate to cancel the August recess. Continued turmoil over Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and Thursday’s $9 billion recissions package ramped up frustrations within Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) party. “House Republicans continue to robotically rubber stamp the extreme and unpopular Trump agenda,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies (D-N.Y.) wrote on X. “Every single House Democrat strongly opposed the reckless Republican rescissions bill.”

The upcoming August recess will give Republicans time to garner support in their constituencies for the “Big Beautiful Bill,” but President Trump had been pushing this week for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to “cancel August recess (and long weekends!)” to confirm more of Trump’s nominees.

“[Democrats] haven’t demonstrated much of a willingness on anything so far. I mean, they are making it extremely difficult to get any of the president’s nominees through the process here,” Thune explained. “It’s obstruct, it’s delay, it’s block. That’s been the pattern. And it’s Trump Derangement Syndrome on full display here in the United States Senate.” Though over 200 of the Trump administration’s nominees still await confirmation, canceling recess would put crucial Republican campaigning opportunities in jeopardy.

But battling with the Democrats might create more problems for Republicans down the road. Congress currently has until September 30 — 20 legislative days — before government funding expires for the 2025 fiscal year. Senate Republicans will need at least seven Democrats to vote with them by September, but recent bills further dividing the two parties make bipartisanship more unlikely. “It is absurd to expect Democrats to play along with funding the government if Republicans are just going to renege on a bipartisan agreement by concocting rescissions packages behind closed doors that can pass with only their votes, not the customary 60 votes required in the appropriation process,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a recent speech.

But Republicans are hoping for Democratic support in spite of recent disagreements. “Because, ultimately, keeping the government funded is good for the country, and hopefully we will have bipartisan cooperation to do that. But if their recent track record is any indication, they’re under a tremendous amount of pressure from that far left wing of the Democratic Party to shut the government down,” Thune stressed during a Fox News interview.

Nonethless, the White House is asking for more cuts from Republican lawmakers. At a breakfast with The Christian Science Monitor, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought confirmed that more cuts will soon be underway. “This is the kind of thing that’s necessary for us to change the paradigm of the way the town has worked,” said Vought. “The notion that we have now dusted off a process that allows on a majority basis to come along after and cut funding is very, very substantial.”

Republicans have multiple battles ahead as they continue their fight to cut wasteful government spending and try to bolster the country’s economic state. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote on X: “We’ve cut taxes, secured the border, ignited the economy, and put America First at home and on the world stage. And we’re just getting started.”

Caily Shriver serves as an intern at Family Research Council.