WASHINGTON — House Republicans are expected to derail their own plan Wednesday to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month, with the party divided over how long a short-term funding bill should last and what, if anything, should be attached to it.
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan would extend funding at current spending levels for six months, through March 2025, and tie it to the SAVE Act, a Donald Trump-backed law requiring people to show proof of citizenship to register to vote.
The funding plan is on the verge of failure given Republicans’ razor-thin 220-211 majority and the fact that a number of Republican lawmakers — a mix of fiscal conservatives and defense hawks — have vowed to kill it.
Democrats, who want a three-month “clean” funding plan with no strings attached, almost universally plan to vote against it. Many oppose the SAVE Act, pointing out that it is already illegal and rare for noncitizens to vote.
Wednesday’s vote comes a week after Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, withdrew the exact same funding bill because it lacked GOP support, but decided to move forward again.
Some conservatives have said they never vote for stopgap funding bills, known as continuing resolutions, or CRs, while Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., has warned that half a year is too long for military spending to remain stagnant.
But the overwhelming majority of rank-and-file Republicans support Johnson’s decision, saying holding the vote would allow lawmakers to take a position.
“I think it’s good to put it on the table, to let people know who supports it and who doesn’t,” Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio said after a closed-door meeting of House Republicans Wednesday morning. “I think it’s more important to call a vote, to let the record show who stands where. Everybody.”
Davidson, who was ousted in July from the far-right House Freedom Caucus, lamented that Republicans had failed to unite behind a plan just weeks before the election. “It’s a mix of bedwetters who don’t fight for anything,” he said, “and purists who don’t fight for anything unless it’s perfect.”
Speaking to reporters at his weekly news conference, Johnson defended his strategy but would not say whether he would listen to Trump, who has called on Republicans to shut down the government if they fail to pass the SAVE Act.
“We’ll see what happens with the bill, okay? We’re on the field in the middle of the game. The quarterback’s calling the play. We’re going to run the game,” Johnson said. “I’m very confident, I know all Republicans believe in election security. We have people who don’t like revolving resolutions. You know what? I don’t like revolving resolutions either.”
Earlier, in an appearance on CNBC, the House speaker said he would not consider thinking about what would happen if the vote failed: “I’m not going to talk about Plan B.”
The government is set to shut down at 12:01 a.m. on October 1 unless Republicans and Democrats can reach an agreement on short-term funding.
That won’t include the House speaker’s plan, which was stillborn in the Democratic-controlled Senate and faces a veto threat from President Joe Biden.
Instead, the likely next step will be for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to present the House with a clean CR, funding the government beyond the election through December. That would give bipartisan negotiators time to hammer out a longer-term funding deal during the end-of-term session for fiscal 2025 — if a short-term bill can pass the House.
“Plan B has always been a clean CR,” Rep. John Duarte, R-Calif., said of the need to eventually adopt a short-term fix.
With just 48 days to go until the Nov. 5 general election, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, is warning that a government shutdown would be politically devastating for the GOP.
“There’s one thing we can’t do during a government shutdown, and that’s politically stupid for us to do that right before the election,” McConnell said Tuesday, “because we would certainly be held accountable for it.”
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said after Wednesday’s meeting that he had full confidence in Johnson to find a way to avoid a shutdown, noting that the president reached a funding deal earlier this year with Schumer for the current fiscal year.
“Ultimately, if ever he “If he wanted to shut down the government, he’s had plenty of opportunities to do it,” Cole said. “Since he’s been speaker of the House, he’s never let that happen. I don’t think he ever will.”
