Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Thursday will tee up a stopgap spending bill for a vote next week in a last-minute bid to avert an Oct. 1 government shutdown.
The legislative move comes the day after the Republican-led House rejected Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) proposal to extend current funding levels into the next presidential administration that included a Republican proof-of-citizenship voter registration bill dubbed the SAVE Act.
The Senate taking the reins will “enable us to prevent a Trump shutdown in the event that Speaker Johnson does not work with us in a bipartisan, bicameral manner,” Schumer said.
“Now that their efforts have failed, House Republicans don’t seem to have any plan for actually keeping the government open,” Schumer said. “So, the Senate will step in.”
Democratic and Republican Senate leaders are eyeing an extension of current funding levels until sometime in December, giving lawmakers the opportunity to negotiate a full-year budget in the lame-duck session after the election but before a new Congress and administration in January. House Republicans’ strategy was to kick the can until March, with hopes that a GOP sweep of Congress and the White House would allow them to exert greater control over the purse strings.
Johnson sought to appease hard-line conservatives who typically oppose such stopgap spending measures, known as continuing resolutions, by attaching the SAVE Act, but 14 Republicans joined nearly all Democrats in shooting it down.
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Former President Donald Trump is urging Republicans to invoke a shutdown if they cannot secure the SAVE Act, a tactic Senate Republicans have aggressively advocated against over fears it would backfire just weeks before voters head to the ballot box. Trump and his allies say the legislation is crucial for election integrity, a claim Democrats dismiss as “fearmongering” because of scant evidence of noncitizens voting in federal elections.
“If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” Trump posted Wednesday on Truth Social just hours before Johnson’s failed vote. “BE SMART, REPUBLICANS, YOU’VE BEEN PUSHED AROUND LONG ENOUGH BY THE DEMOCRATS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN.”