Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana unveiled a new plan Sunday to avert a partial government shutdown after a House Republican insurrection last week derailed conservative measures.
House leaders are aiming to vote this week on a short-term extension of current government budget levels, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to give congressional negotiators time to discuss federal spending priorities for the new fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
To avoid a government shutdown, the bill must pass the House and Senate before the end of the legislative session on Sept. 30. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has signaled the plan has bipartisan support in both chambers.
The new measure, closer to what Senate Democrats and the White House wanted than the original plan, is likely to anger the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus and its allies, but most Republicans are wary of the political fallout if it fails just weeks before Election Day.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson announced a new government funding plan that includes additional funding for the Secret Service in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Trump. (Getty Images)
Johnson slammed the Senate for failing to pass a single budget bill out of 12, writing in a letter to House Republicans on Sunday that “Senate Democrats have been unable to pass a single budget bill or negotiate an acceptable cap with the House for FY2025, leaving a continuing resolution as the only option.”
The plan would avert a government shutdown through Dec. 20. A House Republican leadership staffer told reporters Sunday that Democrats' additional budget requests had been rejected and additional disaster relief funding in Johnson's original plan had been removed.
But the budget would include about $230 million more for the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and certain surveillance measures in response to a bipartisan push for increased security following two thwarted assassination attempts on former President Trump.
Perhaps the most significant change is the repeal of the Protecting American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act), a bill that would have required proof of citizenship as part of the voter registration process.
The Trump-backed bill passed the House of Representatives earlier this year with the support of all Republicans and five Democrats. Johnson hoped that attaching it to the CR would force the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House (both of which say the bill is unworkable) to consider it, or at least provide a strong opening for negotiations.
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But 14 Republican senators who oppose CR in principle voted the bill down last week.
“If Republicans will not approve the SAVE Act in its entirety, they should not agree to a continuing resolution in any form,” Trump wrote on Truth Social before the vote.
“Our bill will be a very limited, bare-bones CR, including only the extensions that are absolutely necessary,” Johnson pledged to his colleagues on Sunday.
“This is not the solution any of us would want, but it is the most prudent course under the current circumstances. As history teaches us and current polls prove, shutting down the government with less than 40 days until a fateful election would be political malfeasance.”
The fight over government funding has been one of the fiercest in the 118th Congress, pitting even the House's most conservative allies against one another.
Johnson's new plan is unlikely to ease those tensions. Opponents of a December CR argue that the only option is to combine 12 years of spending bills into one giant “omnibus” spending bill, which nearly all Republicans oppose.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Johnson's original plan. (Reuters/Mike Seeger)
But House Republican leadership staff have suggested Congress is likely to pass another CR for the new year, rather than set a new level for fiscal 2025, in line with Johnson's original plan.
The speaker's previous proposal would have kept the government funded through March, but Democrats and some national security hardliners opposed it.
But Trump's supporters had hoped the fight over government funding would drag on into the new year, hoping that Trump would win the White House and lead a Congress fully controlled by Republicans.
Schumer last week sharply criticized Johnson for trying to pass the conservative CR.
“I am pleased that a bipartisan negotiated government funding deal without budget cuts or poison pills was quickly reached, but this same deal could have been made two weeks ago. Instead, Speaker Johnson chose to play the MAGA game and wasted valuable time,” Schumer said in a statement.
“If both sides continue to work in good faith, I am hopeful that we can complete work on the CR this week, well ahead of the September 30 deadline. Bipartisan cooperation in both Houses of Congress will be key to completing the work this week.”
