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Tom Cole acknowledges Congress will need new CR to pass spending bills

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the House Appropriations Committee chairman, conceded Wednesday that Congress will likely need to craft a new short-term spending deal as time dwindles on the seven-week patch passed by the House in September.

Cole told the Washington Examiner in an interview at his U.S. Capitol office that the government shutdown is eating into the continuing resolution passed by the House on Sept. 19, making it likely a new CR, extending to the end of the calendar year or into January, will need to be crafted.

Cole said he thinks the Appropriations Committee could finish up its work by the end of December, but “every day that goes by, makes that less likely.”

“We would need another CR because we’ve wasted, so far, four weeks of this one, but we could make significant progress” if the shutdown ends before Nov. 21.

“There’s no reason why this needs to go much beyond the calendar year, if we started now, but every day we delay pushes that further out,” Cole said.

Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, sits down for an interview on Oct. 22, 2025 at his office in the U.S. Capitol. (Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner)
Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, sits down for an interview on Oct. 22, 2025 at his office in the U.S. Capitol. (Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner)

Cole’s remarks follow comments from several other Republicans who are recognizing that the Nov. 21 deadline of the current CR won’t give appropriators feasible time to pass all 12 appropriations bills for fiscal 2026.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) did not commit to a longer-term CR or even a full-year CR on Wednesday, the latter of which is being pushed by fiscal hawks and conservatives who want to limit spending as much as possible. But, he said, “obviously,” Congress is running out of time with the shutdown in its 22nd day — the longest full shutdown in history.

“It is going to be more and more difficult with each passing hour to get all the appropriations done on time. We acknowledge that, but we have to decide this day by day,” Johnson said. 

Appropriators are against CRs because they, like Cole, want to see the appropriations process restored to its intended purpose. Many expressed frustrations to the Washington Examiner last week at having to rely on a CR again to fund the government, as well as the fact that a continuing government shutdown keeps punting funding negotiations down the line.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), chairman of the Interior appropriations subcommittee, told reporters on Wednesday that “we’re probably going to have another CR” because “we’ve wasted three weeks in being able to negotiate things.” 

“If it needs to go to January, then fine,” he said.

Still, a definitive time for a new CR hasn’t been officially hashed out, Simpson noted, as Republicans are weighing several options, both feasible and or more far-fetched. On a year-long CR, however, he said he’s skeptical it would get Republican support.

“I just think a long-term CR, why would Republicans support doing something that is what would be the third year of Biden’s last budget? When you say that to Republicans, they’re going, ‘nah, not really,’” Simpson said.

“I suspect leadership is talking about [CR options], about what do we do if we don’t get all the bills done by the 21st of November, and hell, who knows, they might keep the government shut down until then,” Simpson added.

Part of the argument fueling fiscal hawks’ desire for a yearlong CR prevents them from having to vote on a spending deal around Christmas, a situation that occurred last year that led to President Donald Trump wading into the fight and multiple votes on different deals before one stuck.

Cole said there’s always “sensitivity” in Congress about “jamming people at Christmas.” 

“We’re not trying to ‘jam’ anybody, we’re trying to present them a bill. ‘You can’t go home to your families until you pass this even though you don’t know what’s in it.’ We want them to know what’s in it. We want our coalition that passes this to be bipartisan,” Cole said.

SHUTDOWN FRUSTRATES GOP APPROPRIATIONS CARDINALS AS STANDOFF FREEZES FUNDING PROCESS

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday she still prefers that any new CR end date happen this year.

On the Democratic side, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) continued to push the sentiment that Republicans need to “come to the table” to negotiate a “bipartisan spending agreement” before they can discuss the possibility of another continuing resolution during his press conference on Wednesday.

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