Congress is under a time crunch to avoid a shutdown, with both parties sticking to their guns, and some Republicans expressing skepticism about their own plan with less than a month left before government funding runs out.
Lawmakers return to Washington on Monday to face a Sept. 30 deadline to avert a government shutdown. And while the upcoming elections are seen as making a budget shortfall less likely, House Republicans are already preparing for a showdown with the Democratic-led Senate in what could be weeks of messy debate over voting requirements, spending and other issues.
House Republican leaders announced plans Friday to pair the six-month stopgap measure, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), with legislation backed by former President Trump and hard-line conservatives that would require stricter proof of citizenship requirements for registering to vote.
“Today, House Republicans are taking a vital step to protect federal funding and keep our federal election process safe,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said after announcing the bill.
“Congress has a responsibility to do both and ensure that only the American people can decide America's elections.”
Conservatives in recent months have stepped up their calls to extend the stopgap measures beyond December, hoping to avoid a massive omnibus spending bill at the end of the year being negotiated by leaders of both houses of Congress, with the expectation that Trump will return to the Oval Office in January.
House Republicans are expected to move the proposal forward quickly, but Johnson is already facing skepticism about the strategy's chances of success.
Some in the party have cautioned against speculating on how the November election will play out, and one House Republican told The Hill last week he was concerned about leaving the complicated spending process to the new Congress.
“You're going to have newly elected members taking very tough votes on spending bills when they don't even understand the spending process,” he said, noting that Congress also has to address the debt ceiling issue in January.
Others in the party also questioned adding the Protecting American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act) to the CR, noting that such a bill would almost certainly fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Meanwhile, two conservative senators have already spoken out against CR, meaning Johnson can only afford to lose four Republican votes on a partisan bill.
“if [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] “Congressman Schumer (D-New York) could have put the SAVE Act to a vote and passed it, as he wanted to do, but he won't. He wants illegal immigrants to vote in American elections,” said Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.). Post to X.
“We should focus on passing all 12 budget bills!” he added.
But some are hoping party leaders will press ahead, especially after Republicans struggled to pass a partisan budget bill before recessing in late July amid intraparty divisions over spending policy.
“Republicans can just sit there and rack their brains and say the usual nonsense, or they can come together and come together and figure out how to strategize for the next two months,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), the lead sponsor of the SAVE Act, told The Hill in an interview before the bill went into effect.
“But we have to figure out what to do about government funding, and we have to figure out what to do about picking the fights that differentiate us from the Democrats.”
Democrats are strongly opposed to partisan CR plans.
“There is a clear, bipartisan path to responsibly fund our government, but Republicans in Congress are wasting their time,” Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement in response to the GOP-backed proposal.
“Their six-month CR approach ignores immediate needs that really impact our defense, our veterans, and our communities. We call on Congress, as we have done so many times before in a bipartisan manner, to quickly pass legislation that keeps the government going and provides emergency funding for disaster needs across the country.”
The fight over spending comes as lawmakers from both parties are raising alarms about a roughly $3 billion budget shortfall facing the Department of Veterans Affairs, another hurdle Congress must face this month.
The agency warned lawmakers earlier this summer that millions of veterans and their families could face a cut-off in benefits in October if Congress doesn't act by Sept. 20, just over a week before the government shutdown ends.
The VA cited the PACT Act, a landmark law passed with bipartisan support in 2022, as a major factor in the budget shortfall, and pointed to an increase in the number of people enrolled in VA health insurance, appointment and claims benefits.
Sen. John Boozman (R-Arkansas), the top Republican on the subcommittee that sets the VA's annual budget, was pressed before Congress recess about using an expected stopgap budget bill as a legislative vehicle to address the roughly $3 billion shortfall.
“I think the only problem is nobody really knows when that's going to happen, but this is something we want to make sure we take care of our veterans and make sure that they don't miss out on the checks that many of them totally rely on,” Boozman said, though he noted there's a “chances” the emergency funds are contingent on the CR.
Senators from both parties had hoped to pass legislation to address the budget shortfall before leaving town last month, but the effort stalled amid increased scrutiny over what some Republicans say is mismanagement of the agency.
House Republicans on Friday released an emergency funding plan to address the shortfall, but the party has not provided details on when the bill will come up for a vote.
Emily Brooks contributed.
