House to take up new funding bill as some Republicans fear a 'galactically stupid' shutdown
The House plans to vote this week on a three-month funding bill to avoid a government shutdown — without an election provision Donald Trump had demanded.
WASHINGTON — The House plans to vote this week on a three-month stopgap funding bill as the clock ticks down and Donald Trump pressures Republicans to shut down the government without policy concessions they have no realistic chance of achieving.
Defying Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., struck a deal with the White House and top Democrats on Sunday that calls for keeping the government funded at current levels through Dec. 20 but strips out a provision demanded by the ex-president that would revise election law nationwide to require proof of citizenship to vote.
As the House adjourned for the week on Friday, Johnson declined to say whether Trump, whom he has regularly consulted during the funding fight, would be OK with moving a package without the citizenship voting component, known as the SAVE Act. Trump and Johnson met for three hours at Mar-a-Lago last week right after a second apparent assassination attempt on Trump, and they met again in Washington on Thursday.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with President Trump,” Johnson told reporters. “I won’t divulge all of that, but he understands the situation that we’re in. He is doggedly determined to ensure that election security remains a top priority, and I am as well, which is why I put the SAVE Act with the CR.”
The federal government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1 unless Congress can pass a short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR. Both President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D.N.Y., expressed support for the CR released on Sunday and urged the House to quickly pass it.
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