House Republicans are considering adding a proposal to require proof of citizenship when a person registers to vote to a continuing resolution on funding that is likely needed to avoid a government shutdown, Politico reports.
Congress must pass a funding bill by Oct. 1 to avoid a shutdown, but Democrats and the GOP split on long-term legislation, and Republicans remain at odds over the prospect of passing another continuing resolution instead.
Multiple Republican legislators told Politico that there are ongoing discussions within the party about attaching a proposal to require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. Earlier this year, a separate citizenship voting bill, the SAVE Act, passed the House with unanimous support from Republicans and backing from five Democrats, but it has yet to come to a vote in the Senate.
Politico notes that conservatives hope to resurrect the bill by attaching it to a piece of legislation that Congress has to pass.
"I think the overwhelming majority of Republicans and, I think, the leadership, want to see a version of a CR with the SAVE Act the week we get back," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said in an interview.
But he added, "There's certainly some who fear a shutdown. There are some who fear doing a CR of any kind."
Another Republican lawmaker, who spoke to Politico anonymously, cast doubt on the proposal, noting that the Democrat-controlled Senate would refuse to pass a resolution that contained such a provision and that Republicans would ultimately be forced to remove it.
The legislator said, "It's just never been clearer to me that the real division within the Republican conference is between realists and dreamers. I think the realists understand the nature of power in D.C. and the dreamers simply don't."