House of Representatives votes on Republicans' plan to fund government, shutdown deadline approaches

Washington — The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a measure to keep the government funded, less than two weeks before a potential government shutdown. But the measure, coupled with what Democrats see as a poison pill for noncitizen voting, is facing opposition in the House. And even among Republicans, support is likely to be low.

House Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Tuesday that the House move forward with the vote, after to delay it Days earlier, he had to fight against opposition from members of his own party. With a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, only a handful of Republicans can defeat a partisan bill. And the opening blow by Republicans in the House of Representatives in the fight for funding has drawn plenty of opponents.

The preliminary budget authorization would fund the government through March 28. But it includes a measure to combat illegal voting that Democrats say has no chance of passing. The bill, known as the SAVE Act, would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. And although current law allows only U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections, the House of Representatives passed the measure earlier this year.

While the election bill is a dead end for Democrats, it is being touted as a stimulus for conservatives in the House who often oppose stopgap measures to keep the government funded. Whether it will be enough to keep the recalcitrant group in check remains to be seen.

The strategy also faces resistance from defense hawks, who have expressed concern about the impact of a six-month extension on defense spending. But Republican leadership in the House has argued for a longer timeline that could give them more leverage in a funding battle should Donald Trump return to the White House next year.

Opposition from several quarters makes passing the bill in the House of Representatives an uphill battle, but Johnson has not yet found an alternative, even though the deadline to fund the government is September 30.

“We'll see what happens with the bill,” Johnson said at a press conference Wednesday morning. “We're in the middle of the game on the field, the quarterback is calling the play. We're going to execute the play.”

Johnson said it was not Republicans in the House who “put us in this situation,” and pointed to the work both chambers have done so far in the budget process. At the same time, he pointed to Democrats in the Senate, who he said “have brought nothing to the table.”

“So it's the Senate that has put us in this situation where we need a CR,” Johnson said. “We are the responsible governing party here and we are doing the right thing.”

Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine and the House Republicans' top budget official, called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bring the full-year funding bills to a vote and criticized Democratic leadership for wasting time on the issue.

“It doesn't have to be this way,” Collins said, adding that if Schumer had prioritized introducing the budget bills, the two chambers could have sent the full-year budget bills to the president's desk before the end of the fiscal year. rarely passes all 12 appropriations bills on time, opting instead for continuing resolutions to expand funding before passing omnibus packages toward the end of the calendar year.

Otherwise, Republicans in the Senate have left the decision to the House of Representatives. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that they would have to “wait and see what the House sends us first.” However, he stressed that there should not be a government shutdown.

“It would be politically foolish of us to do this so close to the election, because the blame would certainly be placed on us,” McConnell said.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have sharply criticized the speaker for his lengthy opening maneuvers. Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the highest-ranking Democratic budget official in the Senate, said on Tuesday that it was “time for Speaker Johnson to take a hard look in the mirror.”

“He's proposing a bill that, first of all, he can't even get through the House, and second of all, he has a zero percent chance of getting through here in the Senate,” Murray said, arguing that the approach would “leave countless programs, including our military, in limbo for half a year” and that it also contains a “massive poison pill” that is the definition of a non-starter.

Murray accused Johnson of taking an “extremely partisan position” with the plan and of pandering to the fringe of his party. She said she had a message for the speaker.

“Right in front of you is a way out that you've taken before and that you should know by now actually works – bipartisanship,” Murray said. “It's actually quite simple.”