Republicans ramp up legislative pressure campaign on Democrats ahead of election

House Republicans plan to apply a pressure campaign on Democrats with tough votes and scrutiny of the Biden-Harris administration’s record on crime and immigration when they return to Washington this week, starting with a government funding battle.

GOP leaders on Friday released their proposed funding patch that includes legislation requiring proof of citizenship to vote, and postpones a final decision on government spending until next year, formally setting up a fight with the Democrat-led Senate.

The measure makes good on Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to pair the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act with funding for government operations through March 28, 2025.

Lawmakers will only be on Capitol Hill for three weeks until they head home again to campaign ahead of the Nov. 5 election, and Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, plans to maximize that time to force Democrats into uncomfortable votes.

The upcoming week includes a likely House vote on a short-term funding patch to keep the government open, a series of hearings targeting the policies of Vice President Kamala Harris and the Biden administration, and a slew of China-related bills.

But the most pressing matter for Congress is the Oct. 1 deadline to keep the government open.

Mr. Johnson has teed up the plan to attach the bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote — pushed by conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus — to the six-month funding patch, a pairing that Democrats almost universally oppose.

While the move could be politically risky for Republicans and result in a partial government shutdown, it’s also designed to force Democrats to again go on record on the SAVE Act. The measure already passed the House with help of five Democratic lawmakers in tough races, but has gone nowhere in the Democratic-led Senate and faces a veto threat from the White House.

“If they vote against it, it means we want illegals, we don’t want verification that you are who you say you are, which is an American citizen,” Rep. Ralph Norman, South Carolina Republican, told The Washington Times. “They [opponents] are gonna say, ‘we’re not gonna do it and you’re gonna shut the government down.’ My response, ‘bring it on. Do it.’ And Mike Johnson, I don’t think he would put this forward if he wasn’t willing to follow through with it. Meaning, hold our ground.”

Mr. Norman added, “Let them shut it down, and you’ve got all kinds of modified shutdowns. We can pass a bill that funds the military, funds different programs that are hot-button items for the [Rep.] Don Bacons [of Nebraska] or the [New York] Rep. Michael Lawlers.”

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who introduced the SAVE Act, said the goal is “a bill that would freeze spending, check spending through March, take the pen out of the hands of Democrats so they can’t advance any more weaponized government and try to ensure that only American citizens vote in American elections.”

Congressional Democrats and the White House warned that the partisan measure was a path to shutting down the government.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray of Washington said in a joint statement that Mr. Johnson was making the “same mistake” as former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who pushed a conservative stopgap bill last year that was ultimately shot down by House Republicans.

“If Speaker Johnson drives House Republicans down this highly partisan path, the odds of a shutdown go way up, and Americans will know that the responsibility of a shutdown will be on the House Republicans’ hands,” the Democratic senators said.

Meanwhile, House committees will hold hearings targeting the administration and Ms. Harris, who is neck-and-neck in her race for the White House against former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.

The House Judiciary Committee is set to hold a hearing on Tuesday on “The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: Victim Perspectives,” while a subcommittee of the panel will conduct a hearing on “The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: Noncitizen Voting” chaired by Mr. Roy.

The Veterans Affairs Committee is also set for a Tuesday hearing dubbed “Accountable or Absent?: Examining VA Leadership Under the Biden-Harris Administration,” which comes on the heels of Republicans proposing a $3 billion supplemental spending package to partially offset an expected budget shortfall at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Other House committees later in the week are set to hold hearings on inflation and the Biden administration’s economic decisions, and a hearing on crime called the “Consequences of Soft-on-Crime Policies.”

Mr. Johnson has also laid out a slate of China-related bills, including measures to prohibit electric vehicles with battery materials sourced from China from qualifying for federal tax credits, and to provide oversight of agricultural land bought by foreign adversaries.

Another bill would establish a CCP Initiative within the Justice Department to counter threats related to intellectual property, academic and research institutions. Others target federal funding for higher education institutions with concerning relationships to China, and seek to make any World Health Organization agreement related to pandemic preparedness or prevention subject to ratification of two-thirds of the Senate before U.S. implementation.

On the other side of the Capitol, the Senate will spend most of September focused on reaching bipartisan agreement on a the funding stopgap proposal and confirming more of President Biden’s judicial and other nominees, Mr. Schumer said in a letter sent to Senate Democrats on Sunday evening.

“There are still opportunities for bipartisan cooperation on NDAA, rail safety, lowering the cost of insulin and prescription drugs, and artificial intelligence, among others,” he wrote. “While we won’t be able to achieve all of these goals before the election, it is my hope that our Republican colleagues will work with us to make as much progress as possible.”

While the House GOP stopgap measure largely keeps in place the spending levels that were set in 2024, it does include boosts to programs that have been depleted, such as $10 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, and $1.95 billion for contracts to continue the Virginia Class Submarine program. The bill does not envision spending cuts.

Democrats took issue with the addition of the SAVE Act, and with the lack of extra funding for the VA and natural disasters.

The $10 billion in disaster relief funding Republicans included is $3 billion short of what the Biden administration had requested and does not include funding for other rebuilding programs that are funded outside FEMA.

“There is a clear, bipartisan path to responsibly fund the government, but instead Congressional Republicans are wasting time,” said Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young in a statement. “Their 6-month [stopgap] approach ignores pressing needs that have real consequences for our defense, our veterans and our communities.”

One of the main points of contention for Democrats is the lack of additional funding to make up for an expected budget shortfall at the VA in the upcoming fiscal year.

While Republicans did introduce a separate supplemental spending package that would address $3 billion of the $15 billion total shortfall for the agency, Democrats said more should be done.

“Even with the introduction of a separate supplemental funding bill, House Republicans are jeopardizing their care by kicking the can down the road until March and failing to fulfill the promises we made to veterans exposed to toxic substances,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

Lawmakers could include disaster aid funding to refill the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, which is out of money. FEMA is able to continue urgent response and recovery efforts but has had to pause all spending unrelated to lifesaving and life-sustaining activities.

Sen. Peter Welch, Vermont Democrat and an appropriator, is urging his colleagues to prioritize disaster relief in the September funding bill, citing the “brutal flooding” in Vermont and “catastrophic hurricanes, fires, and tornadoes across the country.”

“We need flexible spending for our communities — from Vermont to Louisiana to Hawaii, and everywhere in between — for recovery, relief, and resiliency,” Mr. Welch said. “We can work together, even in an election year, and get this done.”

Then there are a variety of federal agricultural, food and nutrition programs, part of the farm bill, that are set to expire without congressional action this month. The most likely scenario is another extension of the previous five-year farm bill, which Congress passed in 2018 and extended last year for one year.

Some lawmakers aren’t giving up hope for passing an updated farm bill. House Agriculture Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson cited the “bleak picture” painted in the recent release of Agriculture Department data showing that farm sector income, which reached record highs in 2022, fell again in 2024 but at a slower rate than last year.

“Declining commodity prices, record farm production costs driven by the reckless spending of the Biden-Harris administration, the largest agricultural trade deficit on record, and an outdated farm safety net threaten to wipe out family farms across the country,” the Pennsylvania Republican said. “It’s time to put partisan bickering and red lines aside and pass a farm bill.”

• Kerry Picket contributed to this report.