Johnson says no-shutdown bill tests Democrats before midterms
House Republicans will hold a vote Tuesday on a stopgap spending bill that would fund the federal government through Dec. 4, an attempt to avoid a shutdown months before the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year and ahead of the November midterm elections.
Speaker Mike Johnson said Democrats who vote against the bill will bear responsibility for any shutdown. “If my Democratic colleagues choose to vote against it, then they alone are going to own the chaos that ensues if the government shuts down after September 30,” Johnson said, according to the Associated Press.
The early action is unusual, the AP reported. Congress typically passes stopgap funding bills days or hours before a deadline. But House GOP leaders are wary of a shutdown damaging their party’s standing with voters in an election year. The House is scheduled to be in session only 16 more days before the Sept. 30 funding deadline, giving lawmakers limited time to address unfinished business once they leave town this week.
Johnson said work on the dozen annual spending bills would continue in the months ahead, but that funding the government through Dec. 4 could help lawmakers avoid a repeat of the previous year when the country experienced the longest federal shutdown. Republicans said they are also laying groundwork for a separate party-line bill worth $95 billion that would boost defense spending, provide farm assistance, and enact portions of President Donald Trump’s election overhaul legislation.