WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled a vote Wednesday on a six-month government funding bill as it became increasingly clear that he lacked the support to pass it as a potential partial government shutdown looms.
The legislation to continue government funding when the new budget year begins on Oct. 1 includes a requirement that people registering to vote must provide proof of citizenship. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican whose party narrowly controls the chamber, signaled that he was not backing off linking the two main pillars of the bill.
“We’re having thoughtful conversations, family conversations within the Republican conference and I believe we’ll get there,” Johnson told reporters outside the House chamber.
Congress needs to pass a stopgap spending bill before Oct. 1 to avoid a federal shutdown just weeks before the election. The measure had been teed up for a vote on Wednesday afternoon, but almost all Democrats are opposed and enough Republicans had voiced opposition to raise serious doubts about whether the measure would pass.
One exception to the partisan divide over the measure is U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine’s 2nd District who voted to advance the noncitizen voting bill in July. He told The Hill on Tuesday that he had concerns about funding the government for only six months but had no reservations about passing such a plan with the voting bill attached.
“Why would I vote to shut down government for something that I’ve already voted for and agree with?” he said.
Noncitizen voting is already illegal in federal elections, and there is no evidence that it happens on a widespread basis. No states allow noncitizens to vote in their elections, although some cities allow them to vote in local ones. Golden was one of 52 House Democrats who voted in May for a Republican-led bill aimed at blocking noncitizen voting in Washington, D.C.
The campaign of Golden’s opponent, state Rep. Austin Theriault, who has worked to affix a “flip-flopper” label to Golden, needled the congressman on Monday after his office did not say how he would vote on a spending bill with the voting measure attached.
After Golden said he would back it, Theriault’s camp called that a flip flop relative to Golden’s past votes in the Maine Legislature against state-level voter identification bills. This House Republican measure is different than those because it would require identification be presented at the time of registering to vote rather than the time of voting.
“Mainers clearly can’t trust Jared Golden to be a steady champion on the issues their families are facing when he’s more concerned about his seat in Washington,” Theriault campaign manager Shawn Roderick said in a statement.
The stopgap bill would generally continue existing funding through March 28. The GOP opponents of the bill argue that it continues spending at levels they consider excessive. And some Republicans simply won’t vote for any continuing resolution, arguing that Congress must return to passing its 12 annual spending bills separately rather than the one or two catchall bills that have become the norm in recent decades.
Democrats are calling on Johnson to “stop wasting time” on a bill that will not become law and to work with them on a short-term spending measure that has support from both parties. At the end of the day, they say no spending bill can pass without bipartisan support and buy-in from a Democratic-led Senate and White House.
“Republicans should work with Democrats on a bipartisan package, one that has input from both sides, one that avoids harmful cuts, one that is free of poison pills. We’re ready to sit down and work with them immediately,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said before Johnson had postponed the vote.
Story by Kevin Freking. BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.
