House Republican leaders announced a plan Sunday to keep the government funded for three months after an initial attempt by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) to avert a government shutdown failed due to GOP opposition.
Continuing Resolution (CR)As a result of bipartisan negotiations in the House and Senate, a bill was passed to keep the government budget at its current level through December 20th, setting off a year-end budget battle.
The three-month period is shorter than the six-month temporary measure originally proposed by Prime Minister Johnson, and the bill notably excludes a measure backed by President Trump that would require proof of citizenship to vote.
Republican leaders are aiming to introduce the bill through the regular floor and have it voted on by Wednesday, before it can be sent to the Senate before the government shutdown ends on Sept. 30, according to Republican officials.
In a letter addressed to “Dear Colleagues” on Sunday, Johnson warned Republicans against a government shutdown.
“This is not a solution any of us prefer, but it is the most prudent course under the current circumstances. History teaches us, and current polls prove, that shutting down the government with less than 40 days until a fateful election is political malfeasance,” Johnson said. McLoughlin & Associates Research The poll found that two-thirds of voters oppose a government shutdown.
The bill also includes $231 million for the Secret Service, which is under renewed scrutiny following the second assassination attempt on former President Trump.
In a letter Sunday, Johnson outlined the bill to Republican lawmakers, saying it “fell just short of the mark and an alternative is needed.”
The speaker added that the brief three-month extension was “to prevent the Senate from jamming us with a bill that contains billions of dollars in new spending and unrelated provisions,” and that the bill is “a very limited, bare-bones extension that only contains the extension that is absolutely necessary.”
House Republicans will almost certainly need Democratic support to pass the bill, and many Republicans are expected to oppose it because of its lack of spending cuts, the short deadline and the lack of a voting measure that hardline conservatives and President Trump have insisted on including in the final bill.
Feeding the bill through the regular process rather than fast track could be a stumbling block because it would mean the bill would have to go through a procedural vote. Such votes on rules that govern debate over legislation are traditionally partisan issues, regardless of lawmakers' views on the bill.
But throughout this Congress, hard-line conservatives have voted against the rules in protest against bills they disagree with, and if opposition is strong enough they could block bills from moving forward in the House of Representatives.
A period of roughly three months is the preferred time frame of hard-line Democrats and Republican defense hawks.
Conservatives, meanwhile, have called for a longer stopgap measure until the spring, reducing the likelihood of a big omnibus spending package at the end of the year and allowing them to give Trump more say over the fiscal 2025 budget if he wins in November.
At a press conference ahead of the release of the stopgap bill, aides to House Republican leadership said the three-month deadline “does not necessarily mean we will have a comprehensive bill in December,” suggesting another round of funding fights could break out after the election.
The short-term spending bill is the latest attempt by Republican leaders to avert a government shutdown on Oct. 1 after Johnson failed to land his first shot at budget negotiations last week. Fourteen Republicans joined forces with a supermajority of Democrats to block the Protect American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a combination six-month short-term spending bill and voting bill, dealing a blow to Johnson.
Still, Johnson stressed that the six-month CR plus SAVE Act was the right “playbook.” It was meant to highlight Democratic positions on voting issues and serve as an opening proposal for negotiations, even though Republicans knew the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House would never approve it.
Democrats point out that voting by foreigners is already illegal and extremely rare, and are concerned that this will place a burden on voters.
Trump also appeared to complicate things by calling on congressional Republicans to not pass the CR Act and force a shutdown unless Democrats approve the SAVE Act. But most Republicans say a shutdown would hurt them in November. Johnson, who has discussed funding issues with the former president, said Friday that Trump “understands” the situation House Republicans are in.
Democratic leaders in both chambers praised the proposed CR while criticizing Johnson and Republicans for trying to pass a partisan stopgap bill last week.
“As a result of a recent and ongoing bipartisan, bicameral process, the continuing resolution under consideration is consistent with the spending levels agreed to in the Bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act and does not contain any of the partisan, right-wing policy changes that House Republicans improperly attempted to shoehorn into the spending bill,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (Dynamo, N.Y.) said in a statement.
“Once we return to Washington, House Democrats will jointly evaluate the entire spending bill ahead of its consideration on the floor of the House.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he has begun the lengthy process of sponsoring a funding bill in the Senate, “and hopefully, this measure will not be necessary.”
“I am pleased that bipartisan negotiations were able to quickly result in a government funding agreement without budget cuts or poison pills, but this deal could have been made two weeks ago, but Chairman Johnson followed his MAGA lead and wasted valuable time. As I have said throughout this process, the only way to get things done is with bipartisan, bicameral support,” he said.
The stopgap measure would keep the budget at the same level it was last discussed in both houses earlier this year.
The plan does not include an additional $10 billion in funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund that was previously included in House Republicans' first six-month plan. But it also includes replenishing FEMA's disaster relief fund.
A Republican leadership aide said negotiations with Democrats on stopgap measures were aimed at “keeping only what's absolutely necessary on the table and taking everything off the table.”
The stopgap measure also does not include funding for the Virginia-class submarines that were included in an earlier Republican-backed plan, nor does it include any additional funding to address the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has warned it could face a $12 billion shortfall in health care spending for fiscal year 2025.
But the 46-page bill also contains a number of expansions to the VA health care system, including measures to expand the VA's authority to provide nursing care to veterans with “service-connected disabilities” and authority for the Defense Department-VA Joint Health Facility Demonstration Fund, budget writers said.
The move comes after Congress passed legislation last week to address the VA's more immediate $3 billion shortfall, with officials warning that veterans' benefits could be cut off starting next month if Congress doesn't act.
The bill includes funding for the Secret Service, but aides to House Republican leadership said the funding is “limited to supporting the immediate needs of the election campaign” as President Trump and Vice President Harris make their final push toward Election Day.
But Republican leadership aides said the funding would come with “several conditions,” including complying with congressional requirements as the agency receives oversight from committees similar to the House task force set up to investigate the July assassination attempt on President Trump.
The Secret Service budget increase came after Congress debated increasing funding for the agency following two assassination attempts on President Trump.
Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe said earlier this month that the agency has “immediate” needs and “future needs,” adding, “We also need to maintain our current staffing. And to do that, we need to have the funding to be able to hire more people.”
But Republicans in Congress are skeptical of giving the agency more funding, with some arguing the agency is dealing with a staffing problem, not a funding one.
Updated 5:35 p.m.
