Speaker tees up plan to fund government, setting up fight with Democrat-led Senate

House Speaker Mike Johnson laid out an approach to lawmakers on passing a stopgap bill that would avoid a government shutdown but also set up a fight with the Democrat-led Senate in the process.

In a members-only call Wednesday, the Louisiana Republican shared a tentative plan to move ahead with a six-month stopgap bill that includes legislation that would require proof of citizenship to vote, a source on the call told The Washington Times.  

With lawmakers returning to Washington next week for a three-week sprint until another long break from the Capitol and a deadline to fund the government by Oct. 1 fast approaching, Mr. Johnson wants to vote on the legislation as soon as possible.

However, the legislative text of the stopgap has not been released, and GOP leadership is still working to shore up support for the plan.

While the voting legislation, known as The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, passed the House with a handful of Democratic lawmakers in tight races supporting it, Democrats in the Senate have not touched the bill and the White House has threatened to veto it.

Mr. Johnson faced pressure from conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus to attach the legislation to a continuing resolution who threatened to vote against a funding patch otherwise.

“I fully support [Mr. Johnson’s] move to include [Rep. Chip Roy’s] SAVE Act on a 6-mo continuing resolution next week,” said House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good, Virginia Republican, on X. “Let Border Czar Harris and the Democrats explain to the American people why they do not want fair and secure elections.

Other members on the call, like Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, New York Republican, pushed for more add-ons to the stopgap bill to bolster border security.

Anthony Raisley, a spokesperson for Ms. Malliotakis, confirmed to The Times that she pushed to include the Laken Riley Act, legislation that also passed the House that would deport migrant criminals “over concerns about the recent murders, rapes, stabbings, and gang activity by migrants in New York City.”

But the push to include the SAVE Act raises the chances of a government shutdown that could hurt the GOP’s efforts to win crucial seats in the House and Senate in November, and could harm former President Donald Trump’s bid for the White House.

It also may not have the universal support from the House GOP that it will likely need to pass the lower chamber, particularly from lawmakers reluctant to see a shutdown during a crucial election, or others who don’t want to see Republicans push a messaging bill that is bound to fail.

Rep. Matt Rosendale, Montana Republican, argued on X that pairing a stopgap and the SAVE Act was “disingenuous and dishonest,” and that doing so amounted to a messaging technique from Republicans.

“We shouldn’t be continuing to fund the government at levels that I voted against, for policies that I voted against,” Mr. Rosendale wrote.

He also called it folly to “try to attach the SAVE Act to it so that you can get additional support, knowing full well that the SAVE Act and that CR will never get passed together.”