OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill Monday afternoon to start their final week in session before Election Day—and the looming threat of a partial government shutdown.
To avoid a shutdown, Congress must approve new government funding by October 1, the start of the new fiscal year. Without an agreement between the Republican-led House and the Democrat-controlled Senate, thousands of federal employees could face furloughs, and various government programs might be temporarily halted.
However, on Sunday evening, House leaders under the leadership of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) proposed a short-term funding extension known as a continuing resolution (CR) to extend this year’s budget through December 20. This would allow additional time for lawmakers to negotiate a long-term agreement for 2025.
Johnson announced the plan after introducing a six-month spending bill last week that contained a ballot integrity measure that failed.
Fourteen Republicans joined all but three Democrats in defeating the bill, disappointing allies of Johnson who had hoped it would serve as a strong negotiating position with the Senate, Fox News reported.
Several GOP lawmakers, speaking with Fox News Digital last week, anticipated that Johnson would push for a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) through December—a move favored by Democrats and some senior Republicans but likely viewed as a defeat by conservatives.
The revised plan omits the elections measure and adds $231 million in additional funding for the U.S. Secret Service. However, Republicans rejected Democratic calls for increased funding for the Veterans Affairs Department and disaster relief, according to Fox News Digital.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, policy chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, placed the blame on his fellow Republicans for putting the GOP in its current predicament.
“What we were trying to put forward was a provision that would get spending into the next year, allow us to reconstitute government with a new Congress, hopefully with a Republican House, Senate and White House . . . clear the decks so you’re not debating all this crap in December, get rid of the possibility of an omnibus, and, oh, by the way, have a real fight on the [Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act],” Roy said.
“But they wanted to be political Nostradamus and saying, ‘I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen.’ Well, no s— that’s what’s going to happen when you kill it in the cradle,” he added.
Earlier this month Johnson, at the urging of former President Donald Trump and conservative Republicans, considered adding a major immigration enforcement legislation called the SAVE Act to a must-pass spending bill just weeks ahead of the November election.
According to Punchbowl News, “The speaker is getting pressure from hardline conservatives and former President Donald Trump to attach the SAVE Act to the CR [continuing resolution] even if it threatens a shutdown.” In addition, the news service added that congressional conservatives are angling for a CR “until next year in hopes that Trump will be back in office.”
Jake Sherman of Punchbowl reported via the X platform that the CR would extend beyond Election Day on Nov. 5 through March 2025.
Trump, meanwhile, discussed the SAVE Act, out-of-control illegal immigration under Vice President Kamala Harris’ watch, and his desire to see the government shut down over the issue if need be in an interview with former Fox News host Monica Crowley’s podcast on Monday.
“Mr. President—election integrity and the Harris no-borders policy. It’s not open borders, it’s no borders, which, of course, now she’s trying to run away from. You support the SAVE Act, which would block non-citizens from voting in this election and in the future. Do you support adding the SAVE Act to the spending bill that Congress is going to take up next month in September to try to get it into law before this election?” Crowley, who served as the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of the Treasury during Trump’s administration, asked.
“Absolutely. And I think you should also change your elections to paper ballots,” Trump responded. “I think you should get a lot of things for that. That’s a big deal. When they extend that bill, they’ll extend it again and again. The Republicans ought to try and get some things for a change—the House and the Senate—they ought to go for getting things. They don’t get anything. They extend everything. Then it comes due.”