WASHINGTON — The House plans to vote this week on a three-month stopgap funding bill as the clock ticks down and Donald Trump pressures Republicans to shut down the government without policy concessions they have no realistic chance of achieving.
Defying Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., struck a deal with the White House and top Democrats on Sunday that calls for keeping the government funded at current levels through Dec. 20 but strips out a provision demanded by the ex-president that would revise election law nationwide to require proof of citizenship to vote.
As the House adjourned for the week on Friday, Johnson declined to say whether Trump, whom he has regularly consulted during the funding fight, would be OK with moving a package without the citizenship voting component, known as the SAVE Act. Trump and Johnson met for three hours at Mar-a-Lago last week right after a second apparent assassination attempt on Trump, and they met again in Washington on Thursday.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with President Trump,” Johnson told reporters. “I won’t divulge all of that, but he understands the situation that we’re in. He is doggedly determined to ensure that election security remains a top priority, and I am as well, which is why I put the SAVE Act with the CR.”
The federal government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1 unless Congress can pass a short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR. Both President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D.N.Y., expressed support for the CR released on Sunday and urged the House to quickly pass it.
“If both sides continue to work in good faith, I am hopeful that we can wrap up work on the CR this week, well before the September 30 deadline,” Schumer said in a statement Sunday. “The key to finishing our work this week will be bipartisan cooperation, in both chambers.”
Last week, 14 House Republicans teamed with nearly all Democrats to torpedo a six-month funding bill that included the SAVE Act. That embarrassing failure for Republicans allowed bipartisan House and Senate negotiators to begin crafting a “clean” CR with no controversial provisions attached to it.
Johnson unveiled the text of the new CR on Sunday, which would keep the government open through Dec. 20, which would get Congress past the contentious election and buy members more time to strike a longer-term funding deal for fiscal year 2025 before leaving for the holidays.
The House plans to take up the CR by mid-week. While it does not include the SAVE Act, the short-term bill contains $231 million in additional funds for the Secret Service following the latest apparent attempt on Trump’s life on Sept. 15.
Johnson and other GOP leaders are pleading with their party not to allow a shutdown just five weeks before Election Day, which would be unprecedented in modern times. Swing-district Republicans say it would be a terrible move, as their party would likely get blamed by voters.
“It’s, in my opinion, galactically stupid to do a government shutdown even after an election. Before an election, it’s even worse. It’s self-immolating as a party if we do that right before an election,” said Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., who represents one of several dozen competitive districts that could decide the House majority. “So we should not shut the government down.”
Asked if Trump is making it harder to avert a shutdown, Garcia said it’s up to Johnson.
“The dynamics of all that, it’s between him and the speaker,” he said. “And the speaker’s got to call his play.”