Mike Johnson announces vote on bill to avoid government shutdown

Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday the House will vote this week on a three-month stopgap funding bill to keep the federal government open through Dec. 20.

If the measure goes into effect, the government would avert a shutdown that is set to begin at the start of next month without congressional action.

In a letter to colleagues, Johnson, R-La., said the “legislation will be a very narrow, bare-bones CR including only the extensions that are absolutely necessary.”

“While this is not the solution any of us prefer, it is the most prudent path forward under the present circumstances,” he continued. “As history has taught and current polling affirms, shutting the government down less than 40 days from a fateful election would be an act of political malpractice.”

Congress has just over a week to pass a short-term funding bill, also known as a continuing resolution, or CR, to avert a government shutdown at 12:01 a.m. Oct. 1. If the House passes the bill, it will move on to the Senate.

The plan promoted by Johnson does not include any part of the SAVE Act, legislation to require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Johnson previously tried to link the act to a six-month continuing resolution, but the House rejected the plan last week. 

The bill includes an additional $231 million for the Secret Service “for operations necessary to carry out protective operations including the 2024 Presidential Campaign and National Special Security Events.” It requires the Secret Service director to provide an expenditure plan to the House and Senate appropriations committees. 

The Rules Committee is scheduled to review the CR at a meeting Monday afternoon. The bill is likely to be considered on the House floor Wednesday, according to a House Republican leadership aide.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget said that “the Administration urges swift passage” of the bipartisan measure.

“This short-term CR will keep the government open and give Congress more time to complete full-year funding bills that deliver for our national defense, veterans, seniors, children, and working families, and address urgent needs for the American people including communities recovering from disasters,” the spokesperson continued.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement that while he was “pleased” about the result of the bipartisan negotiations, he criticized Johnson’s handling of the situation.

“While I am pleased bipartisan negotiations quickly led to a government funding agreement free of cuts and poison pills, this same agreement could have been done two weeks ago,” Schumer said in a statement. “Instead, Speaker Johnson chose to follow the MAGA way and wasted precious time.”

Earlier Sunday, Schumer had told reporters that there’s a “really good chance” the government will not shut down at the end of the month.

“We really now have some good news: There’s a really good chance we can avoid the government shutdown with all the pain it would cause for New York and America this week,” Schumer said.

Last week, House Republicans voted down their own plan to avert a shutdown, dealing an embarrassing blow to Johnson and imperiling efforts to fund the government for six months.Discussions about keeping the government open are particularly tense now, with less than 50 days left before the presidential election.

On Sunday, Schumer said he is “coming closer” to an agreement with Johnson.

“I am ready to sit down and I have been sitting down for the last four days with Speaker Johnson, his staff and my staff, and we’re coming closer to an agreement,” Schumer told reporters.

“We can get this done, but we can’t have any delays,” he said, adding: “We can’t have any people on either side of the aisle, Democrats or Republicans, standing up and saying unless I get my way, I’m going to shut down the government. We can’t have that. There’s too great a consequence for the American people.”

Schumer’s comments come after he called Johnson’s previous strategy that involved passing both a CR and the SAVE Act “unworkable” and encouraged him to abandon it in a floor speech last Tuesday.

Johnson has struggled to bring his caucus into consensus on a spending plan over the last few weeks, especially after former President Donald Trump urged Republicans to shut down the government if they can’t tie a bill to the SAVE Act, a bill related to voting and elections.

“If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET. … CLOSE IT DOWN!!!” Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, earlier this month.

Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., lambasted the idea of shutting down the government, especially so close to the election.

“It would be politically beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election because certainly we get the blame,” McConnell said, adding: “We’ve been here before. I’m for whatever avoids a government shutdown, and that’ll ultimately end up obviously being a discussion between the Democratic leader and the speaker of the House as to how to process avoiding a government shutdown.”