Democrats in the Senate and White House have panned a plan by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to fund the government ahead of a Sept. 30 shutdown deadline, Punchbowl News reported.
Johnson’s spending plan would keep federal agencies open until March at Fiscal Responsibility Act levels minus previous side deals agreed to by President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, according to Punchbowl.
The Louisiana congressman also plans to attach the SAVE Act, a bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, to the spending package, Punchbowl said.
The SAVE Act previously passed the House in July with five Democrats joining all Republicans in voting yes, though it has yet to receive a vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Non-citizens are already barred from voting in federal elections.
Senior House and Senate Democrats said the spending package proposed by Johnson is inadequate. Senior Democrats have opposed all House Republican spending bills, Punchbowl said.
“We cannot fund the government — with full-year funding bills or a continuing resolution — without the support of both Democrats and Republicans in the House and the Senate,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee told Punchbowl. “House Republicans have taken the process of funding the government down a partisan path — forcing us to consider extreme, harmful funding bills that have no chance of becoming law.”
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who introduced the SAVE Act, pointed out five Democrats supported the bill, with many other Democrats “privately wanting to.”
“If they vote ‘no’ with it attached to a funding bill that funds government to March – it’s pure politics,” Roy said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
With Democrats opposed to the Republican spending bill, Punchbowl said they expect a continuing resolution to be approved that extends into December, requiring both sides to agree to a spending package during a lame-duck session.