Schumer Moves on Senate Stopgap Funding Bill as Shutdown Looms

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The House failed to pass a six-month stopgap spending plan Wednesday that included an election integrity measure.

WASHINGTON—Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) moved on Sept. 19 to advance a stopgap government funding bill, a day after the House failed to pass a Republican bill aimed at averting a shutdown.

Schumer filed cloture on a bill to use as a vehicle to pass a short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution. This would allow the Senate to immediately pass a bill after it had already gone through the chamber’s procedures for passing legislation.

“Both sides are going to spend the next few days trying to figure out the best path remaining for keeping the government open,” Schumer said on the Senate floor on Thursday morning.

“By filing today, I’m giving the Senate maximum flexibility for preventing a shutdown.”

The Senate majority leader stressed the need for a bipartisan stopgap plan. With funding set to expire on Sept. 30, Congress has less than 12 days to avert a shutdown.

On Sept. 18, the House rejected a GOP six-month stopgap spending package that included a measure to require proof of citizenship to vote, with 14 Republicans joining all but three Democrats in voting it down.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he will seek another solution but has yet to announce a plan.

“We‘ll draw up another play, and we’ll come up with a solution. I’m already talking to colleagues about their many ideas. We have time to fix the situation, and we’ll get right to it,” said Johnson after Wednesday’s vote.

House Democrats had overwhelmingly rejected the Republican plan due to its inclusion of an election integrity measure, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. They argued that existing laws already bar illegal immigrants from voting and that requiring proof of citizenship to register would disenfranchise Americans who do not have a birth certificate or passport readily available.

Johnson said it is a serious problem because even if a tiny percentage of noncitizens do vote, it could determine the outcome of an close race.

Former President Donald Trump urged the House to tie a temporary funding patch to the SAVE Act.

“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, the Republican presidential nominee, wrote in a post on Wednesday on his social media platform, Truth Social.

Democrats and some Republicans also want a three-month continuing resolution. This approach would allow the current Congress to hammer out a final bill after the election and get it to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.

Johnson and other Republicans prefer a six-month stopgap plan in the hope that Trump wins reelection, giving Republicans more leverage when crafting the full-year bill.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to weigh in on how long to extend funding. He said Schumer and Johnson will ultimately have to work out a final agreement that can pass both chambers.

“One thing you cannot have is a government shutdown,“ he said on Sept. 17 at the weekly press conference. ”It would be politically beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election because, certainly, we’d get the blame.”

There is bipartisan agreement in avoiding a pre-election shutdown.

The House has passed five of the 12 appropriations bills, while the Senate has not passed any.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.