Exclusive: Russ Vought meets with House Freedom Caucus to stoke support for clean CR, Trump to follow

Top personnel from the Office of Management and Budget, including Russ Vought and Dan Bishop, spent their Monday night in a closed-door meeting pitching a clean continuing resolution to House conservatives, according to multiple sources in the room. President Donald Trump is also set to meet with the House Freedom Caucus and aligned members on Wednesday.

Although the HFC and its congressional allies have historically been supportive of government shutdowns, Vought and Bishop argued that a clean CR would actually be the best-case scenario, sources told Blaze News. The funding deadline is less than two weeks away, on March 14.

With soon to be approved border funding, bullish spending cuts put forward by the DOGE, and a Trump-backed budget blueprint, House Republicans are keen to maintain momentum.

Vought made several points to the members in the room, noting that the Trump administration's impressive momentum would be stifled by an abrupt government shutdown. Additionally, passing a clean CR would allow Republicans to avoid negotiation with Democrats to pass a pork-filled omnibus bill.

While the room was filled with spending skeptics and fiscal conservatives, multiple sources told Blaze News that Vought's pitch was received well, categorizing the mood as "congenial" and "friendly." Several Republicans in the room who have previously been in the middle of the GOP's spending fights came away from the meeting with a positive outlook, the sources confirmed.

Vought argued that in order to keep "DOGE-ing," the federal government needs to stay open, according to multiple sources. Rather than diverting focus from President Donald Trump's policy priorities and the DOGE's directives in the form of a shutdown, attendees were encouraged to support a clean CR in order to properly implement the MAGA mandate that overwhelmingly won at the ballot box in November.

"Insurgencies require momentum to stay alive," one source told Blaze News.

With soon to be approved border funding, bullish spending cuts put forward by the DOGE, and a Trump-backed budget blueprint, House Republicans are keen to maintain momentum.

Editor's note: This article has been edited to add a quote from a source who was in the meeting.

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