US Congress brings trouble to election year in fight over government funding By Reuters

By Bo Erickson and David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress returns from the campaign trail on Monday to face a government funding deadline at the end of the month, but election-year politics will still be front and center as Republicans try to use the process to advance a ballot bill supported by Donald Trump.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has proposed a six-month temporary funding bill that includes a measure requiring people to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in US federal elections, and independent studies have shown that there is no evidence that large numbers of people are voting illegally. But former President Trump made it a centerpiece of his presidential campaign against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Republican no. 2 of the House, Steve Scalise, said the non-citizen voting measure is a key demand of members of his caucus.

“I’ve talked to a lot of our members, and everyone has their own things they’d like to attach” to the funding bill, Scalise said in an interview. “This is the one that seems to be where most of our members have come together.”

The Democratic-majority Senate ignored a stand-alone bill on the issue passed by the Republican-controlled House earlier this year, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has signaled little interest in the new measure.

“As I’ve said every time we’ve had a CR, the only way to get things done is in a bipartisan way, and that’s happened every time,” Schumer said in a statement to Reuters, using the congressional acronym for ” continuation”. resolution’ temporary financing measures.

Some House Republicans expressed skepticism about trying to include the noncitizen voting measure in a spending bill.

“We know it will not be adopted. It’s dishonest and disingenuous to attach it to that CR,” Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale said in a video posted on social media, advocating for Republicans to focus on funding more conservative bills. spending priorities.

The House Rules Committee is set to take up the bill on Monday, which would fund the government until March 28, setting the stage for a possible full House vote later this week.

Top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries has said he plans to push for a discretionary spending level of $1.68 trillion, a number reached during last year’s debt ceiling negotiations.

CRITICAL DEADLINE IN VIEW

It’s been nearly three decades since Congress in 1996 last successfully performed one of its core functions — keeping the government funded — through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. This year, it failed to pass a full-year funding bill until March.

Lawmakers face an even more critical self-imposed deadline of Jan. 1 before which they must act to raise or extend the nation’s debt ceiling or risk defaulting on more than $35 trillion in federal government debt.

Lawmakers have shown little appetite for a partial government shutdown of the kind last seen in 2018-2019 during Trump’s presidency so close to the Nov. 5 election. Trump has often advocated for a government shutdown, both in and out of office, and has suggested Republicans are pushing for one if the non-citizen voting bill does not pass.

“In my opinion, a shutdown is not good for anyone. It’s a quick way to become a minority, to be part of a shutdown and support it,” centrist Republican Rep. Don Bacon told Reuters.

Bacon has said he would prefer a stopgap that only extends through December, saying he believes more military spending is needed sooner.

Meanwhile, House Democrats have accused Republicans of posturing.

“House Republicans are once again playing politics with the welfare of the country. The public is sick and tired of their chaos,” Rep. Suzan DelBene, head of the Democratic House’s re-election strategy, told Reuters.