House fails to pass six-month government funding bill as shutdown looms
The House of Representatives voted down a six-month stopgap government funding bill paired with a GOP-backed voter registration measure on Wednesday amid bipartisan opposition — leaving lawmakers fewer than 12 days to avert a partial shutdown.
The spending bill, which failed 220-202, would have funded the government at current levels until March 28, 2025, and would have mandated proof of citizenship nationwide when registering to vote.
Fourteen Republicans joined 206 Democrats in opposing the measure, while just 199 Republicans and three Democratic renegades voted in favor of it.
Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) voted present.
House Democratic leaders whipped their conference to cast the “no” votes, while some GOP lawmakers resistant to spending bills without cuts ultimately kept the bill from passing.
The opposition came less than a month after members of the conservative Freedom Caucus pushed for the continuing resolution to authorize federal spending paired with the voter registration provisions, though several still voted the package down on the floor.
Newly installed Freedom Caucus chairman Andy Harris (R-Md.) unsuccessfully tried to persuade members to back it earlier Wednesday.
“We owe it to our constituents to pass legislation preventing illegal immigrants from voting in federal elections—an actual threat to our democracy,” Harris posted on X. “I urge my colleagues to protect the integrity of our elections and pass the CR/SAVE Act.”
A senior House Republican aide who spoke with The Post accused the fiscal hardliners of “taking our leverage” over Democrats in spending negotiations going forward — and eliminating the chances of the GOP-backed voter registration measure ever being taken up in the Senate.
“We could’ve set up a shutdown fight that had a message,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a strong proponent of the continuing resolution, or CR, who claimed that strengthening voter registration standards was an “80%+ issue.”
“We had a chance to pressure the Uniparty (and a two-fer fight to avoid lame duck), but that’s (likely) not going to happen now,” he bemoaned.
Hours before the vote, former President Donald Trump further scrambled plans by suggesting Republicans force a government shutdown if the voting bill, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, didn’t pass both chambers of Congress.
“If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” Trump, 78, posted on his Truth Social account.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters Tuesday that the brinksmanship would end badly.
“One thing you cannot have is a government shutdown. It would be politically beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election, because certainly we’d get the blame,” McConnell said.
“It will be a Republican shutdown,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) echoed in a floor speech Wednesday morning.
Many federal employees are furloughed and not paid for the shutdown period, though some political appointees would be. Essential benefit programs like Social Security still remain active.
It’s illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, though hundreds have been caught doing so in recent years and thousands more have been found on state voter rolls.
Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have both championed the SAVE Act as a fix to an earlier federal voting law that was allowing registration forms to easily get into the hands of non-citizens receiving welfare benefits or applying for driver’s licenses.
Johnson was forced last week to pull the spending and voting package from the floor ahead of a planned weekend vote, postponing its consideration until his conference could reach a “consensus.”
The speaker maintained optimism ahead of a second try, even as at least half a dozen House Republicans — including Greene, who threatened to oust Johnson earlier this year over a foreign aid funding bill — had made clear they would not support the legislation
“Congress has an immediate obligation to do two very important things. We have to keep the government funded, and we need to make sure that our elections are secure,” he said on Fox News Wednesday morning.
“We’re moving legislation today to have a continuing resolution to keep the government going for six months and to make sure that illegals cannot vote, noncitizens cannot vote in the upcoming election,” he added. “It’s a number one issue around the country.”
