Congress has one more week in session to avert a government shutdown
House lawmakers are back on Capitol Hill Monday afternoon to begin their final week in session before Election Day – and a possible partial government shutdown.
Congress has just five days to find an agreement on funding the government at the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1. If no deal can pass the Republican-held House and Democrat-controlled Senate by then, thousands of federal employees could be furloughed and multiple government programs temporarily shuttered.
Both Republicans and Democrats agree that some sort of short-term extension of this year’s funds, called a continuing resolution (CR), is needed to buy negotiators more time. They differ on how to get there, however.
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Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has not given an indication of what his plan might be after his plan of a six-month CR combined with a measure requiring proof of citizenship in the voter registration process failed last week.
Fourteen Republicans joined all but three Democrats in successfully voting down the bill, much to the chagrin of Johnson allies who had hoped it would be a strong opening salvo in his negotiations with the Senate.
Several GOP lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital last week said they expected Johnson to hold a vote on a "clean" CR through December – something desired by Democrats and some senior Republicans – which conservatives would see as an unequivocal loss.
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Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, policy chair of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, made clear that he blamed his fellow Republicans for leaving the GOP in this position.
"What we were trying to put forward was a provision that would get spending into the next year, allow us to reconstitute government with a new Congress, hopefully with a Republican House, Senate and White House . . . clear the decks so you're not debating all this crap in December, get rid of the possibility of an omnibus, and, oh, by the way, have a real fight on the [Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act]," Roy said.
"But they wanted to be political Nostradamus and saying, ‘I'm going to tell you what's going to happen.’ Well, no s--- that's what's going to happen when you kill it in the cradle."
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There’s no guarantee, however, that Johnson’s CR would be just a "clean" straightforward extension.
Several GOP lawmakers have suggested they would back adding additional Secret Service or disaster relief funding to such a measure.
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And with Johnson’s razor-thin four-seat majority in general, it is all but certain that he will need help from Democrats to get any CR across the finish line.