Congress has just a handful working days left to ward off a partial government shutdown but no clear plan from the GOP-run House or Democrat-led Senate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, pulled his contentious stopgap paired with the SAVE Act that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote Wednesday hours before a scheduled vote because it didn’t have enough support within the GOP.
For now, he has no plan to abandon the SAVE Act.
“We’re going to continue to work on this,” Mr. Johnson said after pulling the bill. “We’re going to work through the weekend on that. And I want any member of Congress in either party to explain to the American people why we should not ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting in U.S. elections.”
Democrats and the White House largely argue that the only way forward is to have a clean funding bill that lasts until December, which is the typical time frame for a funding patch. The longer it takes to reach an agreement, the more likely that outcome is. The deadline is Sept. 30.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said that the only real chance a stopgap has is with input from Democrats.
“In divided government, the only way Congress has been able to pass [spending bills] is through bipartisan cooperation,” Mr. Schumer said on the Senate floor. “We’ve seen this again and again these last two years. Unfortunately, House Republicans have regrettably forgotten that lesson.”
But the Senate has yet to put forward a proposal for a stopgap, and Mr. Johnson is unlikely to abandon his plan because of pressure from former President Donald Trump, who demanded that Republicans get assurances on election security or shut the government down.
While many in the GOP agree that the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act should pass, most are not willing to see the government shutter ahead of the election, knowing they would be the party that gets blamed.
And ownership of a shutdown could result in losses at the ballot in November that could turn the tide of the election in favor of Democrats, who are trying to keep control of the Senate, White House and flip the House.
Rep. Tim Burchett, one of the conservatives who opposed the stopgap bill, told The Washington Times that he did not think attaching the SAVE Act was the right thing to do since the House had already passed the bill in July.
He did not want to see a shutdown but said that stopgap kept adding to the federal deficit, which he described as business as usual in Washington.
“I get it if the lobbyists … aren’t happy, but I guarantee the people back home don’t like deficit spending, and they don’t like that we add a trillion dollars to the debt every 100 days,” Mr. Burchett said. “Let them defend that.”
In many ways, the current state of the government funding fight this year is similar to last year’s.
Mr. Johnson, like his predecessor, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, is pushing for a conservative stopgap bill, but conservatives won’t vote for it and time is running out to call a different play.
Last year’s fight ended with a clean continuing resolution that Democrats widely supported but ultimately cost Mr. McCarthy his job. While Mr. Johnson does not have the same ouster threat looming over his head, he still has the same divided majority to contend with.
Rep. Chip Roy, who wrote the SAVE Act, said that Mr. Johnson’s hands are tied by his own Republicans.
“They have this misguided notion that somehow they’re going to just will into existence 218 votes for something when they themselves are often, including me, the ‘no’ vote on some policy matter on why you can’t get an appropriation bill done,” the Texas Republican said. “Some of my friends need to get out of fantasyland and go, you know, work with the speaker to try to get something done.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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