With the deadline to keep the federal government open less than two weeks away, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Republicans are scheduled to vote Friday on a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) that would extend current spending levels and avoid a shutdown.
The question in New Hampshire is whether Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), the U.S. Senate candidate who frequently touts his bipartisan bona fides, will reject the short-term spending bill and vote for a government shutdown.
In an interview on Fox News Thursday night, Johnson said House Republicans are doing their part, and without shenanigans.
“We’ve been working hard to get the House back to the regular appropriations order, and we’ve achieved that in the House in a bipartisan fashion,” Johnson said. “We passed all 12 appropriations bills through the committee, three of them off the floor.
“Republicans are going to do the responsible thing; we will pass a CR here tomorrow (Friday) out of the House, I suspect, and it sounds like we won’t have many Democrats to assist in that.”
Pappas has already attacked the GOP proposal.
“House Republicans continue to engage in a partisan process that is driving us towards a shutdown,” Pappas said Thursday. He’s introducing legislation to ensure that military “servicemembers are paid on time, even if government funding stalls.”
“Members of the armed forces defend our nation and our way of life every day, and we owe it to them to ensure they and their families never experience hardship as a result of political dysfunction in Washington,” Pappas said.
But voting against a clean CR won’t get his new legislation passed. And as U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) pointed out from the Senate floor, Democrats voted for short-term funding measures more than a dozen times when President Joe Biden was in office.
Johnson said Thursday that even if the House passes the CR — likely with no Democratic support — the measure still has to go to the Senate. What will Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen do?
“Chuck Schumer saw (our clean CR), and he returned a counteroffer that is filled with partisan wish lists and poison pills and demands,” said Johnson. “He wants to reinstate free health care for illegal aliens. He wants to add $500 million to prop up liberal media outlets, and he wants to add a massive $1.4 trillion spending hike to what should be a simple seven-week stopgap funding measure. We can’t do that. We’re not going to do it.”
The Democrats’ proposal includes $1.5 trillion in new spending, according to Matthew Dickerson at the Economic Policy Innovation Center.
The GOP majority isn’t going to add significant amounts of spending in a stop-gap measure, but Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) told Roll Call Thursday she’s not sure what happens if the House sends a clean bill. Will they get 60 votes?
“It was discussed at length, but it’s clear as mud to me. I mean, it’s incredibly confusing, so it’s still being discussed among the leaders,” Collins said.
