The Senate will begin debate next week on its spending proposals to fund the government for fiscal 2025, teeing up the appropriations process that will be a monthslong battle and is likely to include stopgap measures along the way to avoid shutdowns.

Political tensions over spending and hot-button policy issues will be intensified in an election year when the balance of power in Washington could dramatically shift and alter which party controls the nation’s purse strings.

On Thursday, the Appropriations Committee in the Democratic-led chamber will begin considering three funding bills, which cover spending for the legislative branch, military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, and the Food and Drug Administration.

The panel, led by Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA) and ranking member Susan Collins (R-ME), passed all 12 last year in the summer for the first time in several years.

House Republicans are further along in the process this year, having passed four of the 12 bills with plans next week to pass a fifth and consider another six in committee. Leadership has high ambitions to pass all 12 by the August recess, when Congress embarks on its annual monthlong summer break.

Once both chambers pass their versions of the budget, lawmakers will need to reconcile their differences and hash out topline figures.

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Congress has until the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1 to approve government funding, otherwise a temporary spending bill must be passed to avoid a shutdown. With lawmakers having met that deadline only four times in the past 40 years and the November election fast approaching, a stopgap measure known as a continuing resolution will almost certainly be required until after the election.

Lawmakers did not approve the full fiscal 2024 spending until late March of this year, nearly six months into the budget year.

President Joe Biden’s electoral path to staying in the White House runs through a handful of battleground states. But that route is quickly fading.

The continued fallout from his disastrous debate performance that raised questions about his mental acuity and his electability against former President Donald Trump includes key states shifting in the GOP’s favor and more Democrats hitting the panic button.

The University of Virginia Center for Politics’s election forecaster, Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, downgraded a state that’s historically been a Democratic stronghold, Minnesota, from “likely Democratic” to “leans Democratic,” putting it one notch away from the toss-up states of Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Michigan was also moved into the toss-up category from “leans Democratic.”

“We are solidly behind President Biden here in Michigan, and we’re very focused on the work that we know we need to do to win in November,” Michigan Democratic Party Chairwoman Lavora Barnes told the Washington Examiner.

New Hampshire and Virginia, where Democrats likewise typically perform well, are also being closely watched.

A spokesperson for Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) did not deny a Washington Post report Friday that said the Virginia Democrat was organizing a group of Democratic senators to lobby Biden to exit the race.

The PR messaging that emerged from a White House meeting this week between Biden and 20 Democratic governors was they were on board with their party leader, in contrast to the trickle of sitting House Democrats who say he needs to withdraw.

But behind the scenes and reading between the lines, there are signs that the cracks continue to widen throughout the party.

Govs. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) and Janet Mills (D-ME) questioned whether Biden could still win their blue states, according to Politico. The president in 2020 carried New Mexico by 11 percentage points and Maine by nine.

Gov. Maura Healey (D-MA), a close Biden ally who sits on his campaign advisory board, on Friday called on the president to consider dropping out and “carefully evaluate” his political future.

In another sign of splintering support on Capitol Hill, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) noted in a series of social media posts that “counter to popular belief, the rules of the Democratic Party do NOT require that pledged delegates vote for Biden at the convention.”

“Party rules require delegates’ votes, ‘reflect the sentiments of those who elected them,’ at the time the delegates cast their ballots,” Sherman wrote. “Democratic Primary voters have one overarching sentiment: We need a candidate who will beat Donald Trump.”

Four sitting members of Congress have said Biden should no longer be the name at the top of the ticket: Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Seth Moulton (D-MA), and Mike Quigley (D-IL).

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A defiant Biden told supporters Friday at a campaign rally that he had no intention of calling it quits.

“I am going to run and I’m going to win again,” the president said in Madison, Wisconsin.

Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden is facing calls to end his reelection bid from a growing number of prominent Democrats after his debate performance raised serious questions about the 81-year-old’s mental fitness.

The president and his campaign remain defiant and are pressing ahead, but an avalanche of calls to step aside and let someone such as Vice President Kamala Harris be the Democratic nominee could change that calculus.

Here are the Democrats who have so far said Biden should bow out of the race against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)

On Tuesday, Doggett became the first sitting member of Congress to say Biden should withdraw from the race. The longtime House Democrat praised the president but said he “failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies.”

“Recognizing that unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw,” Doggett said in a statement. “I respectfully call on him to do so.”

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ)

The ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, Grijalva on Wednesday became the second sitting member of Congress to call for Biden to drop out.

“If he’s the candidate, I’m going to support him, but I think that this is an opportunity to look elsewhere,” he told The New York Times. “What he needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for keeping that seat — and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race.”

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA)

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) became the third sitting House Democrat to call on Biden to withdraw, arguing the president should step aside to allow someone else to run against Trump.

“President Biden has done enormous service to our country, but now is the time for him to follow in one of our Founding Father George Washington’s footsteps and step aside to let new leaders rise up and run against Trump,” Moulton told Boston-area radio station WBUR on Thursday. 

Just the day before, Moulton said his party should consider “all viable options” to replace Biden at the top of the ticket.

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL)

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) called on Biden to exit the race on Friday.

“Mr. President, your legacy is set. We owe you the greatest debt of gratitude,” Quigley told MSNBC. “The only thing that you can do now to cement that for all time and prevent utter catastrophe is to step down and let someone else do this.”

Former Rep. Tim Ryan

Ryan, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, wrote in a Monday op-ed that Harris should replace Biden as the party’s nominee after a “deeply troubling” debate performance.

“It isn’t just about a 90-minute debate and a terrible performance,” Ryan wrote. “This election needs to be about generational change — something about which I have been shouting for more than a year now.”

Obama HUD Secretary Julián Castro

Castro, who was also a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and has been critical of Biden in the past, said it was time for someone else to take the reins.

“I believe that there are stronger options out there for Democrats,” Castro said Tuesday on MSNBC. “We have a stable of folks who could do a better job, including Vice President [Kamala] Harris. It’s too risky to let Donald Trump walk into this in November.”

Colorado congressional candidate Adam Frisch

Frisch, who nearly unseated Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) in 2022 and is running for the open seat in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, on Tuesday called on Biden to withdraw from the race.

“It has been clear to me for some time, and the debate only reinforced it — neither candidate should be running for president,” Frisch said in a video statement. “We deserve better. President Biden should do what’s best for the country and withdraw from the race. I thank President Biden for his years of service, but the path ahead requires a new generation of leadership to take our country forward.”

Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson

Williamson said Tuesday that Biden should be replaced.

“President Biden deserves our respect, our compassion, and our gratitude,” Williamson said in a video statement. “The debate last week, however, made clear that the time is now for another Democratic candidate to take his place on the November ballot.

“Today, I throw my hat in the ring,” she added.

Former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang

Yang, who left the Democratic Party in 2021 to become an independent, endorsed Biden’s Democratic primary challenger this cycle, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN). Yang was among the first prominent voices after Biden’s debate to say he should drop out.

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“Guys, the Dems should nominate someone else – before it’s too late,” Yang posted in a series of tweets. “#swapJoeout”

Gov. Maura Healey (D-MA), a close ally to Joe Biden, called on the president to “carefully evaluate” his political future Friday amid growing calls within the party for him to drop out of the election.

“The best way forward right now is a decision for the president to make,” Healey said in a statement. “Over the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump. Whatever president Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump.”

The carefully worded position from the Biden campaign surrogate marked the first Democratic governor to express doubt following an emergency White House meeting this week with the president and 20 Democratic governors.

Healey, in widely reported remarks, told fellow Democratic colleagues during a call this week before the meeting that Biden’s political fate was “irretrievable.”

In her statement, Healey also praised Biden for having “saved our democracy in 2020 and has done an outstanding job over the last four years.”

Healey sits on Biden’s national campaign advisory board and hosted a fundraiser for him in her deep-blue state earlier this year.

Other Democratic governors emerged from the Biden meeting with reassurance about him and stood firm in their support, in contrast to the continued fallout from his debate debacle that raised questions about his mental fitness to serve a second term, at the end of which he would be 86 years old.

A defiant Biden told supporters Friday at a campaign rally that he had no intention of calling it quits.

“I am going to run, and I’m going to win again,” the president said in Madison, Wisconsin.

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He continued: “I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party. You voted for me to be your nominee, no one else. You, the voters, did that. And despite that, some folks don’t seem to care who you voted for. Well, guess what: They’re trying to push me out of the race. Well, let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race.”

A fellow Bay State Democrat, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), became the third sitting representative this week to urge Biden to withdraw.

He doesn’t want to be known as the replacement of retiring Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT). The same goes for being the conservative “climate guy.”

Rep. John Curtis (R-UT), fresh off winning a competitive GOP primary for Utah’s open Senate seat, warns Beehive State voters they may be “disappointed” if they expect him to be a mold of his predecessor or Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).

“The reality of it is, while I have great respect for both Sen. Romney and Sen. Lee, I’m just different than both of them,” Curtis told the Washington Examiner in an interview.

As Senate Republicans seek to retake the chamber and deepen its bench, his future colleagues, at least for now, may be left wondering if he’ll bolster a dwindling centrist faction crucial to striking deals with Democrats or the hard-line conservative wing that has seen its ranks grow in recent elections.

The answer is probably somewhere in the middle. And his presence, should he clench the general election this November in the reliably red state, could affect day-to-day policy debates and the heated contest to find the next Senate Republican leader.

“The way to know me is to look at my last seven years, and that has been a hallmark for me, finding what I would call that cross-section of values,” Curtis said.

Curtis may come across to some as a Romney reserve waiting in the wings. A pragmatic conservative who founded the House Conservative Climate Caucus, he’s had his fair share of intraparty conflict and is no stranger to criticizing former President Donald Trump. Curtis did, after all, garner nearly 50% in a competitive three-way primary that included Trump-backed Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs.

But Curtis has already charted a lane of his own, even if he does foreshadow that his Senate voting record will “be more like Mike Lee’s, particularly fiscally.”

He falls nearly smack dab in the middle of Romney and Lee on the Conservative Political Action Conference’s legislative analysis scorecard. Curtis clocks in with a conservative score of 79%, compared to Romney’s 62% and Lee’s 99%.

“Utah voters responded to my lane,” Curtis said. “I think there’s a false narrative that you’re either all in or all out on President Trump. The reality of it is … I enjoyed supporting him, but that doesn’t mean he has an unconditional vote from me.”

Curtis declined to wade too deep into the race to replace Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is stepping down as the longest-serving Senate party leader next year but will remain in the chamber. It’s currently a three-way contest between two McConnell allies, Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) and former Whip John Cornyn (R-TX), and conservative long-shot Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL).

But after witnessing firsthand the “dysfunction” with House Republicans this Congress, Curtis emphasized party unity must be the focus for any successor.

“I am weighing who can do the task at hand. And for me, that’s primarily who can unify the different Republican voices into one voice,” he said.

Curtis’s triumph at the ballot box also laid bare that there remains a path forward for those in the party who feel Republicans should do more to combat climate change.

“I can’t help but talk about this,” Curtis said.

Curtis, with the support of dozens of fellow House Republicans, founded the Conservative Climate Caucus in 2021 with the goal of reaching younger generations on an issue of growing political influence. He vowed, in one form or another, to bring with him to the Senate the group’s mission of embracing conservative policies that slow rising global temperatures.

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“One of the things that has been a journey for me myself is finding a place to land. And I think what I’ve been able to do is define a very comfortable place for Republicans to land on climate that doesn’t betray their conservative values but it also reduces emissions and acknowledges that reducing emissions is important,” Curtis said.

“That will be a continued emphasis. I have no doubt,” he added. “I’m just not quite sure the form it takes.”