WASHINGTON – Speaker Mike Johnson’s short-term shutdown strategy government financing bill to a proposal supported by Donald Trump revision of voting laws was on life support on Monday after a group of conservative rebels vowed to vote no on the package.
Without a sustained funding bill, money will run out and the federal government will shut down at the end of the month.
Because of the GOP’s razor-thin majority, Johnson can only be separated by four Republicans if all lawmakers vote. At least five Republicans — Reps. Corey Mills of Florida, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Jim Banks of Indiana and Thomas Massey of Kentucky — say they will not support Johnson’s plan to avert a government shutdown on Sept. 30. .
Many other Republicans said they were on the fence.
Johnson is proposing a six-month running resolution, or CR, along with legislation backed by former President Trump, called the SAVE Act, that would reform voting laws nationwide. by requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Trump has urged congressional Republicans to pass the SAVE Act, which is opposed by Democrats who control the Senate and the White House, or allow a government shutdown.
Mills called Johnson’s strategy “farcical” and said it would do nothing to protect the southern border.
“If we can’t close the border, I’m in favor of a government shutdown,” Mills told reporters.
Rosendale added: “I haven’t supported CR since I got here and I’m not going to start now.”
He dismissed concerns that a shutdown could backfire on Republicans, saying he didn’t think there would be a shutdown in the end.
Asked if his CR plan could pass the House, Johnson said: “We’ll find out.”
It’s been a rocky start for Republicans, who are outnumbered as lawmakers return to the Capitol from a six-week summer break.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Johnson’s plan was dead by the time it reached the upper chamber; and President Joe Biden has vowed to veto the package if it reaches his desk.
But with the GOP plan headed for defeat in the House, Democrats may not need to kill it. Instead, Democrats are pushing for “clean CR” — short-term funding that’s not tied to anything.
“The House Republican CR is just frivolous. This is purely partisan posturing,” Schumer said in a speech on Monday. “Democrats will do everything we can to prevent a Republican-manufactured shutdown. We are committed to working on a bipartisan bill that will keep the government open. Any extraneous provisions that impede that goal must be removed.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., predicted that Republicans would pay the price if they shut down the government.
“I hope the Republicans learned that when they shut down the government, the people will punish them,” Raskin said. “And a government shutdown is a very wasteful, wasteful and self-defeating thing to do. … Donald Trump is teaching them to do that.”
Frank Thorpe W contributed.