Multiple sources told The Hill that former President Trump is making a last-minute push for House Republicans to pass a short-term government funding package that includes voting language.
Such legislation would diverge from a current plan by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, and would complicate efforts to prevent a government shutdown next week.
Trump called several House Republicans who voted against a previous stopgap measure that combined a six-month continuing resolution with a bill requiring citizenship proof to register to vote, in an attempt to get them to support a three-month continuing resolution combined with the voting provisions, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, also made the calls, according to two of the sources.
They made the decisions on Tuesday and Wednesday after Johnson presented a full interim budget that will run until December 20. The House of Commons was set to vote on the bill on Wednesday night, ahead of the September 30 shutdown deadline.
One of the sources said Trump has discussed the idea with Johnson, who is pushing for a vote on clean credit, though the source did not disclose the speaker's reaction.
It's unclear what voting provisions Trump's proposed bill would include — whether they would be the Protect Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which the House speaker rejected in a vote last week, or “simpler” language related to the former president's claims that illegal immigrants are on voter rolls.
According to two Republican sources, several but not all of the 14 senators who voted against the CR last week – most of them did so because they opposed the use of stopgap measures – are prepared to change their position to support a three-month CR that includes the additional voting language pushed by Trump.
But even if President Trump's last-minute plan passes the House, it would likely lead to a government shutdown.
Senate Democrats and the White House have insisted on passing a “clean” continuing resolution that would be the product of bipartisan, bicameral negotiations, as Democrats believe the SAVE Act is unworkable.
“If he gets his way, there will absolutely be a government shutdown,” one of the people said.
The House Speaker's office declined to comment when contacted by The Hill, and the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
It would be extremely difficult for Republican leaders to change their tentative strategy at this stage, and they announced Tuesday they would cancel votes scheduled for Thursday and Friday, in part because of the hurricanes heading south.
Part of the six-month CR Plus SAVE Act's initial strategy was to use the Republican-backed voting bill as a bargaining chip with Democrats, but with less than a week until the Oct. 1 government shutdown deadline, there will be little time to negotiate an alternative before the lights are scheduled to go out in Washington.
However, a government shutdown appears to be one of President Trump's goals.
The former president had previously urged Republican lawmakers to push ahead with the shutdown unless the SAVE Act was included in a government funding bill, despite Republicans overwhelmingly arguing that a shutdown would harm them ahead of the November elections.
“If Republicans do not fully understand the SAVE Act, they should not agree to a continuing resolution in any form,” he wrote to Truth Social.
Updated 3:26 p.m.
