By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-09-22 22:38:14 | Updated at 2024-09-30 07:23:59
1 week ago
Republican US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday proposed a three-month stopgap funding bill that excludes an immigration-related measure demanded by Donald Trump, as lawmakers look to avert a month-end partial government shutdown.
Johnson laid out the plan in a letter to colleagues released just eight days before the government’s current US$1.2 trillion in discretionary funding runs out on September 30. The chamber will aim to vote on the measure on Wednesday, according to a source with knowledge of the plan.
Failure to act by then would furlough thousands of federal workers and shut down a wide swathe of government operations weeks before the November 5 election.
The proposal, which excludes a Trump demand to impose new requirements that people provide proof of citizenship to register to vote, is aligned with what Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had urged, a basic extension of government funding to December. It runs until December 20.
“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 said in the letter.
