The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed an appropriations bill to avert a government shutdown next week after scrapping a proposal demanded by Donald Trump that would have required Americans nationwide to show proof of citizenship in order to Register to vote.
The vote was 341 to 82, with all objections coming from Republicans.
House Republican leaders face internal defections and are relying heavily on Democratic votes to approve the short-term measure. The bill now heads to the Senate, which hopes to quickly approve it later Wednesday, well ahead of the Oct. 1 government shutdown deadline. The House and Senate are scheduled to recess this week for a lengthy recess and will not return to Washington until after the Nov. 5 election.
The package, negotiated by Louisiana Republican Rep. Mike Johnson and top Democrats, would fund the government at current levels through Dec. 20, setting up another spending war before the holidays. It would also provide $231 million in additional funding for the Secret Service, including operations related to the presidential campaign, After two apparent attempts to assassinate Trump.
Trump has publicly insisted that congressional Republicans must shut down the government unless they can enact proof-of-citizenship election legislation, known as the “Rescue Act,” despite its passage Voting by non-citizens is illegal and rare in federal elections.
But after arriving at the house reject package Last week, Johnson combined a government funding and savings bill that repealed Trump-backed election legislation and proposed a new, largely clean spending bill. Johnson and other leading Republicans defended the move Republican-led government shutdown Just 35 days before election day constitutes “political fraud.”
Johnson denied that he was “defying Trump” on the voting legislation and argued that they had remained in close contact throughout the funding fight and that they both believed the SAVE Act was critical to ensuring election integrity.
“I’m not being disrespectful to President Trump. I’ve had a long conversation with him and he’s very frustrated with the situation. His concern is election security, which is mine as well. It’s for all of us,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday.
He blamed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for failing to pass the RESPONSE Act as a standalone measure in the Senate. “We passed the CARES Act over the summer and it’s been sitting on Chuck Schumer’s desk gathering dust; it’s driving us crazy,” Johnson said. “President Trump understands the predicament we are in and therefore there is no light between us.”
If it becomes law, the stopgap bill would spark another shutdown fight in the lame-duck session after the election, but the benefit is that both sides know the balance of power next year.
“I think the vast majority of members of Congress don’t want a government shutdown,” said Sen. John Bozeman, R-Arkansas. “So let’s decide through elections what we want to do.”
The short-term financing bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), requires two-thirds support to pass because it is proposed under a fast-track procedure known as the “moratorium rule.” This was necessary because conservatives on the Rules Committee, who were aligned with Johnson, refused to help advance the plan through committee.
“It’s like kicking the can down the road,” lamented Republican Rep. Dan Bishop, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus who opposes CR.
Rather than blaming Johnson, former Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican, pointed the finger at Senate Democrats who failed to pass any of the 12 annual government appropriations bills for the new fiscal year.
“You always blame us for all these things, but the Senate has put forward zero funding bills. Zero,” Perry said. “You were supposed to have a dance partner, but our partner refused to show up.”
Schumer said he was pleased that House Republicans learned that “partisan bullying tactics” did not work on the funding measure — despite the time wasted.
“As both parties work to avoid a government shutdown, we encourage House Republican leadership to bring this bill to the table and pass it quickly. Time is of the essence,” he said on Tuesday. “Once the House takes action, the Senate will move quickly to complete the CR. I encourage colleagues on both sides to prioritize passing CR quickly and stay away from poison pills and partisanship, we can avoid a government shutdown.”
