House GOP leaders pulled their six-month stopgap funding plan on Wednesday, hours before a scheduled floor vote.
Facing a number of Republican holdouts, Speaker Mike Johnson said they’ll delay the vote until next week as they work to quell Republican opposition and “build consensus.”
“We are going to continue to work on this. The whip is going to do the hard work to build consensus and work on the weekend on that,” Johnson said, noting they are having “family conversations” about it.
The measure has crumbled amid mounting criticism from conservatives, defense hawks and other Republican factions, and it’s unclear that more time will help save the bill unless leaders make drastic changes. House GOP leaders have been already been whipping the bill, and nearly a dozen Republicans have publicly said they plan to vote against it. The package would fund the government through March 28 and is combined with legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, known as the SAVE Act.
While a government shutdown at month’s end is still unlikely and unwanted by congressional leaders, it’s the latest episode of Johnson’s repeated struggles this year to muster enough support to pass GOP spending bills, thanks to many of the same problems currently plaguing his conference.
Johnson and GOP leaders have indicated they don’t have a fallback plan to stave off a government shutdown that would hit in less than three weeks. The speaker continued pushing for the SAVE Act on Wednesday, even as he announced the vote delay.
“I want any member of Congress — in either party — to explain to the American people why we should not ensure that only US citizens are voting in US elections,” Johnson said.
Unless they can find adjustments to placate detractors, there’s an increasing likelihood that House Republicans will wind up saddled with a three-month stopgap spending bill backed by Democrats and the White House, free of any divisive policy add-ons. The Democratic-controlled Senate has not yet put forth its own official bill to keep the government open.
“I think, one way or the other, we’re in the business of at least having a December deadline,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) acknowledged in a brief interview. “It doesn’t mean it couldn’t be extended at that point.”
While five House Democrats supported passage of the SAVE Act earlier this summer, those lawmakers haven’t felt pressured to back Johnson’s proposal and make up for GOP defections now that it’s attached to the spending plan. Some conservatives, spurred on by former President Donald Trump, are pushing for a shutdown if the proof-of-citizenship legislation ultimately isn’t attached to a bill to keep the government open. But that isn’t a widely held view, as many Republicans are loath to flirt with a shutdown just weeks before an election.
Republican defense hawks, meanwhile, say it would be irresponsible to flat fund the military for six months, while top GOP appropriators in both chambers argue that Congress should finish its work on fiscal 2024 funding before the end of the calendar year, offering a fresh start for a new administration and the next Congress.
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), who oversees the Pentagon’s budget, said Congress is likely headed for a “clean” three-month funding fix and that it would be detrimental to operate the Defense Department on autopilot into March.
“We’ll have to have a defense appropriation bill sooner than that. You can’t run the largest enterprise in the world on a CR,” Calvert said of the six-month continuing resolution GOP leaders scrapped.
Any solution to staving off a shutdown on Oct. 1 must ultimately be bipartisan, noted Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, the Republican who oversees transportation funding, since it would require support from Senate Democrats and the White House.
The Biden administration is pushing for a spending patch through December, giving Congress time to wrap up negotiations on government funding after the election. The White House is also calling for tens of billions of dollars in additional disaster relief, funding for veterans’ health care and benefits, food assistance for women, infants and children and money for the Social Security Administration to deal with staffing and outreach issues.
“The Senate is the Senate. And whatever we do, we gotta get through the Senate, and it’s got to get signed,” Womack said. “So when you add it all up, you kind of smell a clean CR coming, or something like that.”
The House’s top Democratic appropriator, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, said whatever final stopgap funding patch Congress ends up clearing this month will need to include billions of dollars in extra disaster aid and funding to fill a budget shortfall at the Department of Veterans Affairs. And to hatch a bipartisan compromise, negotiations will need to begin among top appropriators and Congress’ four leaders, she added.
“Bring in the four corners. This is a one-corner deal,” DeLauro said of Johnson’s pulled plan.
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
