Johnson Pares Down GOP Funding Bill in Desperate Bid to Avoid Shutdown

House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a new bill to avert a government shutdown—less than a week after defections in his own party defeated the speaker’s attempt to pass a spending bill paired with extra legislation prohibiting non-citizens from voting.

The new spending bill will be “a very narrow, bare-bones CR including only the extensions that are absolutely necessary,” Johnson said in a letter to colleagues on Sunday. The House has until Sept. 30 to fund the government before facing a shutdown.

Johnson previously tried to pass a spending bill with the SAVE Act attached—a Trump-endorsed bill that would ban states from registering non-citizens as voters. Fourteen Republicans joined Democrats to defeat the bill last week.

“Since we fell a bit short of the goal line, an alternative plan is now required,” Johnson wrote in a letter on Sunday. “The feedback and ideas from everyone have been very helpful, and next week the House will take the initiative and pass a clean, three-month CR to prevent the Senate from jamming us with a bill loaded with billions in new spending and unrelated provisions.”

The new bill would fund the government through Dec. 20. It also includes an additional $231 million in funding for the Secret Service to “carry out protective operations, including activities related to National Special Security Events and the 2024 Presidential Campaign.”

Johnson admitted the new bill was “not the solution any of us prefer,” but said funding the government was necessary so close to the election.

“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,” Johnson wrote, citing a survey that found a majority of voters, including moderates and swing voters, oppose a shutdown.

In a statement released on Sunday evening, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said that the Democrats would “collectively evaluate the spending legislation in its entirety.”

But Jeffries’ statement also offered light praise of the new legislation, which the congressman called “devoid of any partisan, right-wing policy changes that House Republicans inappropriately attempted to jam into the appropriations legislation.”