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After projecting confidence that he would have the votes to pass a continuing resolution funding the government through March of next year, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was forced to cancel a vote on the bill Wednesday as House Republicans struggled to find consensus.
The plan, as Johnson had articulated it, was to pass a CR with the “SAVE Act” attached to it, which is a bill that would strengthen requirements for states to ensure that noncitizens can’t vote in national elections.
But the plan never had total buy-in from the members of his conference, and a number of Republican lawmakers have announced they oppose the bill because they said they do not want to see the government funded again through continuing resolutions and that the House should simply pass the 12 appropriations bills.
To date, the Republican-controlled House has passed five of the 12 bills, while the Senate has passed none. At the same time, the deadline for a government shutdown is less than three weeks away, putting the odds that both chambers will pass appropriations bills by the deadline at essentially zero.
Johnson’s plan makes sense on paper. The six-month CR would fund the government through March while forcing Democrats to take a politically unpopular vote just weeks before Election Day. And, pending the results of the election, January will bring a new House, a new Senate, and a new president, and with it, the opportunity to negotiate new spending bills, assuming Republicans secure unified control of the federal government.
But the brutal reality of the slimness of the GOP’s House majority once again has reared its ugly head, and any opportunity to force Democrats into a politically uncomfortable situation has fallen by the wayside.
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With less than two months to go until the election, Johnson once again is forced to navigate an effectively impossible situation that will likely conclude with a clean CR passed with the support of Democrats, as Republicans in vulnerable seats seek to avoid a government shutdown they fear will hurt them with voters.
Rather than let the Democrats get everything they want simply by waiting, Republican lawmakers should accept the reality of the situation and take the small wins that they can get today, rather than leave town for the last month of the campaign with nothing to show for it.
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