WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are looking to do what, for them, is almost unheard of —- approving government funding on their terms with little help from Democrats.

Speaker Mike Johnson is teeing up a bill that would generally fund federal agencies at current levels for the remainder of the budget year ending Sept. 30. That would mean defense and non-defense programs would be funded at 2024 levels. Congress must act by midnight March 14.

It’s a risky approach. Normally, when it comes to keeping the government fully open for business, Republicans have had to work with Democrats to craft a bipartisan measure that both sides can support. That’s because Republicans almost always lack the votes to pass spending bills on their own.

This time, Republicans have hopes of going it alone. They plan to muscle the funding bill, known as a continuing resolution, though the House, and then dare Senate Democrats to oppose it and risk being blamed for a government shutdown.

Crucially, the strategy has the backing of President Donald Trump, who has shown an ability so far in his term to hold Republicans in line.

“Let’s get this Bill done!” Trump said on social media.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., says he has never voted for a continuing resolution, what lawmakers often call a CR, but he is on board with Johnson’s effort. He says he has confidence in Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, to make a difference on the nation’s debt.

“I don’t like CRs,” Norman said. “But what’s the alternative? Negotiate with Democrats? No.”

“I freeze spending for six month to go identify more cuts? Somebody tell me how that’s not a win in Washington,” added Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, another lawmaker who has often frequently voted against spending bills but supports the six-month continuing resolution.

Republicans are also hoping that resolving this year’s spending will allow them to devote their full attention to extending the individual tax cuts passed during Trump’s first term and raising the nation’s debt ceiling to avoid a catastrophic federal default.

But Democratic leaders are warning that the decision to move ahead without consulting them increases the prospects for a shutdown. One of their biggest concerns is the flexibility the legislation would give the Trump administration on spending.

“We cannot stand by and accept a yearlong power grab CR that would help Elon take a chainsaw to programs that families rely on and agencies that keep our communities safe,” said Sen. Patty Murray, the lead Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Democratic leadership in both chambers has stressed that Republicans have the majority and are responsible for funding the government. But they also have been wary of saying how Democrats would vote on a continuing resolution.

“We have to wait to see what their plan is,” Schumer said. “We’ve always believed the only solution is a bipartisan solution, no matter what.”

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said earlier this week that the Democratic caucus would meet and discuss the legislation at the “appropriate moment.” But he struck a more forceful tone Friday.

Jeffries said Democrats are ready to negotiate a “meaningful, bipartisan spending agreement that puts working people first.” But he said the “partisan continuing resolution” threatens to cut funding for key programs, such as veterans benefits and nutritional assistance for low-income families.

“That is not acceptable,” Jeffries said.

While continuing resolutions generally keep spending flat, many lawmakers say that failing to keep pace with inflation actually leads to a cut in services.

Trump has been meeting with House Republicans in an effort to win their votes on the legislation. Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, along with more than a dozen other lawmakers, met with Trump on Wednesday.

“I’m open to it,” Burchett said. “But I want to see what’s in it.”

Republicans have a 218-214 majority in the House, so if all lawmakers vote, they can afford only one defection if Democrats unite in opposition. The math gets even harder in the Senate, where at least seven Democrats would have to vote for the legislation to overcome a filibuster — and that’s assuming all 53 Republicans vote for it.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., has said that passage of the measure covering the remainder of the fiscal year doesn’t preclude further negotiations to pass the regular appropriations bills for the budget year.

A Democratic aide speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that such talks have reopened as the two sides try to reach agreement on topline spending levels. The talks could amount to a Plan B should the continuing resolution falter.

Kevin Freking, The Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah would do away with its universal mail-in voting system under a bill sent to its Republican governor as the state’s 2025 legislative session wrapped up on Friday.

The Republican-controlled Legislature approved a proposal requiring voters to opt in to receive their ballots in the mail, meaning they would no longer get them automatically. Voters who want to return their ballots by mail or to a drop box would need to write the last four digits of their driver’s license, state ID or Social Security number on the ballot return envelope. And starting in 2029, residents who vote in person would need to show a valid ID.

If Gov. Spencer Cox signs the bill into law, it would drastically change the voting system in one of just eight states — and the only led by Republicans — that allows all elections to be conducted by mail without a need to opt in.

Cox has repeatedly expressed confidence in the state’s election security but has said he may be open to changing the mail-in voting system so that votes can be tallied faster. Currently, ballots that are postmarked by the day before Election Day can be counted within the following two weeks. The proposal awaiting Cox’s signature would move up the deadline, requiring all ballots to be in the county clerk’s possession by 8 p.m. on Election Day. His office did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Friday.

Lawmakers pointed to the same legislative audits to make cases for and against the bill. The recent audits found no evidence of widespread fraud in Utah’s elections but identified some delays in removing deceased residents from voter rolls. Democrats said the changes were unnecessary and would make voting more difficult, while many Republicans said the voter roll issues indicated a need for new security measures.

“We have good elections in Utah,” said Sen. Mike McKell, one of the top Republicans in the chamber. “We have high confidence in our election process. We have high confidence in vote by mail. But we also have concerns with security, and what we’re trying to balance in this bill is how do we enhance security and at the same time making voting easy?”

Five Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the bill, which passed with veto-proof margins in the House and fell one vote short of a veto-proof majority in the Senate. If Cox rejects the bill, Republican supporters would need to pull in one more senator to override his veto.

Sen. Nate Blouin, a Salt Lake City Democrat, said that by passing the bill, Republican lawmakers were feeding into “conspiracy thinking” around election security.

Republicans have sent their base mixed signals about mail-in voting since President Donald Trump falsely claimed the system was plagued with fraud to explain away his 2020 election loss. Trump continued to sow distrust even as his campaign team and the Republican National Committee began encouraging Republicans to vote by mail in the 2024 race to avoid giving Democrats an edge.

The vast majority of Utah residents mail in their ballots or deposit them in drop boxes.

Earlier versions of the bill received strong pushback from Utah’s county clerks, who have since withdrawn their opposition. But some say they have lingering concerns that the changes will make elections less secure.

The measure instructs clerks to prioritize checking ID numbers over the current practice of matching signatures to those on file. Weber County Clerk Ricky Hatch warned that could lead to a rise in voter fraud because it’s easier to get ahold of someone’s state ID number than it is to forge their signature.

“It is absolutely not a perfect bill, and that’s why the clerks didn’t support it. We simply removed our opposition,” Hatch told The Associated Press. “A big reason why we did that is because we received assurances from sponsors that they would continue to work with us to fix the remaining issues we have to help make sure voters aren’t hurt and that the process is strengthened.”

Tribal IDs would also be an acceptable form of voter identification under the version of the bill that cleared the Legislature, alleviating concerns that it would disenfranchise Native American voters in the last state that gave them access to the ballot box.

Hannah Schoenbaum, The Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — A company owned by President Donald Trump sued Capital One on Friday, claiming the bank unjustifiably terminated over 300 of the Trump Organization’s accounts without cause in 2021, shortly after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The suit was filed by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust and Eric Trump in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

The Trump Organization claims the decision by Capital One to close the accounts was an attack on free speech and free enterprise. The suit also claims the decision was a response to Trump’s political views.

“Capital One has not and does not close customer accounts for political reasons,” the company said in a statement.

The Trump Organization claims it suffered considerable financial harm and losses when Capital One notified them in March 2021 that accounts holding millions of dollars would be closed in three months. The lawsuit claims Capital One violated the law and the Trump Organization is seeking damages.

The account closures were announced about two months after Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of several thousand Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying the 2020 election results, which named President Joe Biden as the winner.

Other banks also stopped doing business with the Trump Organization around the same time, while the business and Trump family members were facing civil and criminal investigations.

The Associated Press

HOLLAND, Mich. (AP) — Protesters demanding an in-person town hall from their western Michigan GOP congressman chanted loudly Friday as honking drivers signaled support, disrupting the usual calm of a conservative family vacation town.

Mere hours later, Rep. Bill Huizenga held a town hall — by phone. The vocal disruption seen outside his Holland office earlier in the day was absent, as the more controlled setting allowed for questions from pre-selected letters and callers.

“I know this may not be satisfactory to some who would like to just create a scene and be, you know, be disruptive,” Huizenga said on the call. “But we know that this is extremely effective for reaching people.”

Some Republicans have opted to hold telephone town halls after GOP leaders in recent days have advised lawmakers to skip town halls that have been filled with protesters decrying President Donald Trump administration’s slashing of federal government. GOP lawmakers have at times found themselves at a loss to explain the cuts, led by billionaire Elon Musk’sDepartment of Government Efficiency, that are leaving federal workers suddenly out of jobs in communities across the country.

Trump and other Republicans have accused paid activists of taking control of town halls. On Tuesday, Huizenga told News Channel 3 in west Michigan that the outreach overwhelming his office was “funded and organized by outside partisans.”

Meanwhile, longtime Holland resident Linda Visscher and other protesters faced freezing temperatures and falling snow outside Huizenga’s office on Friday. Holding a sign that read, “Our House seat is not your entitlement, you are accountable to your constituents,” she insisted she wasn’t being paid to protest.

“I’m trying to think of a nice way of saying B.S. They are not activists,” said Visscher, who said her political affiliations “lean towards liberal.”

“People who go to town halls are concerned citizens. And just because some of the representatives are getting yelled at or uncomfortably questioned doesn’t mean that you stop doing it,” she added.

Nearly 50 people gathered outside Huizenga’s office as cars, ranging from semi-trucks to Ford pickups, honked as they drove by. His Holland office is in Ottawa County, a deeply religious area known as a bastion of conservative politics. Trump secured the area in the 2024 election with 59.5% of the vote.

Nancy Berg, a volunteer at the local Christian Neighbors food bank, held a sign opposing cuts to Medicaid. She said the food bank serves people who are food insecure and “depend on the resources we provide,” adding that she doesn’t know how they will manage if the expected cuts materialize.

Many of the questions Huizenga faced at his phone town hall related to Social Security. Among the potential changes to the Social Security Administration are layoffs for more than 10% of the agency’s workforce and the closure of dozens of offices throughout the U.S. It is all part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Huizenga insisted, “Social Security is not being touched,” adding that DOGE has no authority over it.

Despite facing critical questions, Huizenga concluded his hour-long town hall by saying, “My job as a representative is not to necessarily agree with everybody.”

“It’s also, frankly, not to just go out there and stick my finger in the wind,” Huizenga said. “I get hired to use my experience, my judgment, and then to make tough decisions. And then I get a very public job review every two years.”

Joey Cappelletti, The Associated Press