“The Senate is being run into the ground and unless it changes course … we’re headed straight for another government shutdown,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday. | Getty Reid warns of government shutdown A partisan brawl over spending is looming in Congress in September.

Senate Democrats are forecasting a government shutdown next month if Republicans don’t acquiesce to their demands for a stopgap bill that runs only through this year.

“The Senate is being run into the ground and unless it changes course … we’re headed straight for another government shutdown,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a call with reporters Thursday.


Reid, joined by Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, said Democrats won’t agree to a short-term funding bill that goes into next year, an idea several House GOP hard-liners floated before the August recess.

And with Congress scheduled to be in session for only a month at most before going dark again until after the election, the Democrats’ entrenched position will be a headache for Republican leaders in the House and Senate.

“We are not doing anything into next year and Republicans should be made aware of that right now,” Reid said, adding that he had a private conservation with President Barack Obama on Wednesday and Democrats are in lockstep that they will not back a stopgap bill beyond Christmas.

But several House conservatives and even some top Senate Republicans, including Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, have said they prefer a stopgap that kicks funding into early next year, preferring to turn to an omnibus package when a new president can dictate spending priorities.

Congress gavels back in session Tuesday, giving lawmakers four weeks to move a bill that keeps the government open beyond Sept. 30 and has enough support to pass both chambers.

A House GOP leadership memo on Wednesday said “discussions will continue” within the conference on a continuing resolution but didn’t offer any details beyond that.

It’s not just Democrats who want a CR that doesn't push spending questions into next year.

“I think we owe it to the next president, I don’t care who it is, to get our work done [this year],” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a senior member on the House Appropriations Committee, told POLITICO in a recent interview.

“With all due respect to people who have the other position, are they prepared to vote for an omnibus in March? Probably not. I don’t think the people who probably aren’t going to vote for the final bill anyway ought to decide when we get to vote,” Cole said, taking a veiled shot at conservative hard-liners.

“I think we have more leverage with the current president and the current majorities than we’re likely to have on the other side of this,” he added.

During Thursday’s press call, Senate Democrats also hammered Republicans on a string of outstanding issues, including gun control, the Supreme Court vacancy and funding for the Zika crisis.

“We have a few short weeks to turn it around and I hope for the sake of the country, Republicans will,” Schumer said.

“They need to get themselves out of the box they put themselves in regarding Zika,” Reid added.

But Reid wouldn’t say whether Democrats would demand Zika funding be included in a stopgap measure if a bill to address the crisis isn’t approved before.

“It’s a little hard to negotiate here with each of you, we’re going to have to see what they give us,” he told reporters when asked what demands Democrats would make for the spending bill, including whether they would push a White House request to address problems with the Export-Import Bank.

Reid said the Senate is also expected to bring up water infrastructure legislation during the September sprint.

The Senate will take another vote on a Zika funding bill when lawmakers return Tuesday. But the bill, which Democrats continue to oppose, saying it is riddled with partisan riders, is expected to fail.