House Defeats Johnson’s Spending Plan With Shutdown Looming

Both Republicans and Democrats opposed the stopgap funding bill, which was tied to new rules requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.

The House on Wednesday defeated a $1.6 trillion stopgap spending bill to extend current government funding into March and impose new proof-of-citizenship requirements on voter registration, as Republicans and Democrats alike rejected Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposal to avert a shutdown at the end of the month.

The bipartisan repudiation was entirely expected after several Republicans had made clear they would not back the spending plan and Democrats almost uniformly opposed the voting-registration proposal. The vote was 220 to 202, with 14 Republicans joining all but three Democrats in opposition. Two Republicans voted present.

Even with a Sept. 30 deadline approaching to fund the government, Mr. Johnson had pulled the plug on the vote last week as it became apparent that his plan would not have the necessary support. But the speaker, under pressure from former President Donald J. Trump and the hard right to insist on the proposal, plunged ahead on Wednesday anyway, working to show members of his party that he was fighting for their principles.

“Congress has an immediate obligation to do two things: responsibly fund the federal government and ensure the security of our elections,” said Mr. Johnson, who has made the voting registration bill a personal crusade. He said voting by just a few noncitizens “can throw an election. They can throw the majority of the House. It could affect the presidential race. It’s very, very serious stuff.”

In the hours before the vote, Mr. Trump posted on social media that if Republicans did not get “every ounce” of the citizenship verification bill, they should not agree to a measure to keep government funding flowing “in any way, shape, or form.” He charged, baselessly, that Democrats were “registering Illegal Voters by the TENS OF THOUSANDS, as we speak,” adding, “They will be voting in the 2024 Presidential Election.”

There is no evidence of that happening, and state audits and data compiled by groups across the political spectrum have found no indication that noncitizens are voting in large numbers.

“Let me state a fact,” said Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. “The Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections. It is not legal in any state for a noncitizen to vote for a federal office.”

While Republicans backed the voter proposal, some hard-right conservatives refused to support the legislation because they regard current federal spending levels as too high. And some G.O.P. members of the Armed Services Committee criticized the measure for the opposite reason, arguing that the six-month timeline would shortchange the military by delaying needed spending increases.

Lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol predicted that by the odd logic of a dysfunctional Congress, the defeat of Mr. Johnson’s initial funding plan could lead to a breakthrough. Democrats and Republicans expressed hope that it would open the door to a shorter-term spending patch, free of the voting measure, that could pass both the House and Senate in time to prevent a shutdown on Oct. 1.

“I hope that once the speaker’s C.R. fails he moves on to a strategy that will actually work: bipartisan cooperation,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said on Wednesday, referring to the funding bill known as a continuing resolution. “It’s the only thing that has kept the government open every time we have faced a funding deadline. It’s going to be the only thing that works this time, too.”

Senators in both parties support extending funding only into mid-December, allowing them time to try to reach a long-term deal on spending bills to run through September 2025.

They maintain that the longer-term legislation the speaker has pushed would shortchange the military and national security by not adjusting spending to meet current events, and that legislation approved by the Senate spending panel is a preferable alternative in light of international developments.

“The bill would provide our military with the resources it needs to confront the global threats facing the United States, which combatant commanders have described to me as being the worst and most dangerous in 50 years,” Senator Susan Collins of Maine, the senior Republican on the Appropriations Committee, said on Wednesday.

Congress is also being called on to replenish drained disaster relief money, fill a multibillion-dollar shortfall to keep benefits and health care flowing to veterans, and potentially adjust funding for the Secret Service to ensure that the agency is funded in the run-up to the November election after two assassination attempts on Mr. Trump.

With the funding deadline looming, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and minority leader, warned his party about finding itself caught up in a shutdown with voters beginning to cast their ballots for control of Congress.

“It would be politically beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election, because certainly we’d get the blame,” Mr. McConnell told reporters earlier this week.

The outcome of the election and which party ends up controlling the White House and Congress will also influence how the House and Senate approach spending issues after the election.

Our Coverage of Congress

Here’s the latest news and analysis from Capitol Hill.

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