WASHINGTON — Congress is stumbling toward another government shutdown deadline at the end of the month with no clear plan in place to enact a bipartisan stopgap spending bill — and some new meddling by the Republican presidential nominee.
House Republicans have, so far, taken the go-at-it-alone approach by scheduling a vote Wednesday on a six-month continuing resolution, despite that legislation lacking the votes needed to pass both chambers.
President Joe Biden has also issued a veto threat of the bill, ensuring it has no path to becoming law.
Meanwhile, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sought to stir the pot Tuesday by calling on his party to force a shutdown if Democrats don’t accept the GOP’s inclusion of a separate bill that would require an ID to register to vote.
“If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET,” Trump wrote on social media.
House Republican leaders have included a bill that requires proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections in their stopgap spending bill. It is already illegal for people who are not citizens to vote in federal elections.
The original voting bill, H.R.8281, was first introduced by Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus. It passed 221-198 in July, with five Democrats voting with Republicans, but stalled in the Senate.
The White House rejected that sidecar in a Statement of Administration Policy released earlier this week, writing that the “unrelated cynical legislation… would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but would make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls.”
Congress must pass some sort of spending bill before the end of the month to avoid a partial government shutdown beginning just weeks before the November elections.
Senators react
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pressed for congressional leaders to get in a room and negotiate a bipartisan agreement during a press conference Tuesday.
“The bottom line is, we want a bipartisan negotiation,” Schumer said. “We will sit down and do a bipartisan negotiation, and that’s the only way to pass this.”
Schumer laid the responsibility for calling such a meeting at the feet of House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said during a separate press conference he’s reserving judgment on the House stopgap spending bill until he sees whether it will actually pass that chamber.
“I think we first have to see what the House sends us, and then, of course, how to handle that will be up to the majority leader,” the Kentucky Republican said. “But the first step ought to be what comes out of the House. And I think we don’t know right now.”
McConnell said there shouldn’t be a government shutdown under any circumstances, clearly rejecting Trump’s calls for one.
“A government shutdown is always a bad idea,” he said.
Thune cites predictability for military
Senate Republican Whip John Thune, of South Dakota, was critical of the House GOP’s six-month stopgap spending bill, which would likely push off negotiations on the dozen annual government funding bills until early next year.
That could have a detrimental effect on the Senate vetting, holding hearings and voting on the next president’s Cabinet nominees during the first few months of the new year.
“That is a very, I think, fair observation about what could happen next year, and is something I think everybody needs to factor in when we make a determination about how long the CR ought to be for,” Thune said.
The negative effects on the Defense Department and military readiness were also cited by Thune in connection with a longer stopgap spending bill.
“When we fund the government, we ought to do it in a way that provides predictability and certainty, especially to our military planners,” Thune said. “So I think that’s an argument for a shorter term and trying to resolve these issues before the new Congress comes in, in January.”
But, he said, GOP leaders in the Senate are planning to consider the stance of those who want the longer, six-month spending measure that House Republicans have put forward.
“There are those who believe that punting this in the next year is a good strategy,” Thune said. “We’ll hear everybody out on that in the next couple of days, and then, depending on what the House sends over, what Schumer decides to do with it, we’ll figure out how to respond from there.”
Ariana Figueroa contributed to this report.
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