Will there be a new government shutdown before the 2024 election?
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have until September 30 to get a funding bill to President Biden to avert a government shutdown just before early voting begins.
Congress has six workdays to pass a spending package before funding for the federal government runs out on September 30. If they fail to do so, the following day most federal government operations would shut down just days before early voting begins in some states.
The latest attempt to pass a continuing resolution bill failed on Wednesday in a 220-202 vote. The plan brought to the floor by Speaker Mike Johnson would’ve funded the government for six months at current levels. However, it also included a controversial measure that would require people to show proof of US citizenship when they register to vote.
Will there be a new government shutdown before the 2024 election?
The Republican House Speaker’s plan was defeated with 14 votes from his own party against the proposal. Even if it had passed it would not have gotten through the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House opposes the bill.
Democrats want a shorter extension and oppose the voting legislation outright, which passed the GOP-controlled House as a standalone bill in July. The legislation, called the SAVE Act, is unnecessary as it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in the US “and there is no evidence that attempts at voting by noncitizens have been significant enough to impact any election’s outcome,” according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Johnson will now “have to recalibrate” according to GOP Rep. Mike Lawler which at a minimum would require removing the voting registration provision. However, former President Donald Trump weighed in on the matter posting on Truth Social that “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.”
A government shutdown before the 2024 election is something Republican and Democrat lawmakers in both chambers want to avoid. “We are 47 days away from an election. There’s not going to be a shutdown,” Lawler told CNN’s Manu Raju.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that “it would be politically beyond stupid” to have a government shutdown right before the election. He’s open to anything that would avoid a shutdown as he’s certain Republicans would get the blame for it.
“The one thing you cannot have is a government shutdown,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “It would be politically beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election because certainly we’d get the blame.”
“One of my favorite sayings is, ‘There’s no education in the second kick of a mule.’ We’ve been here before. I’m for whatever avoids a government shutdown,” McConnell added.