Representatives condition government funds on citizenship verification for new voters

House Speaker Mike Johnson is heeding the demands of the more conservative wing of his Republican conference and has scheduled a vote this week on a bill that would keep the federal government funded for six more months and require states to obtain proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, when registering a person to vote.

Congress needs to pass a stopgap spending bill before the budget year ends on Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown just weeks before voters go to the polls and elect the next president.

Johnson’s decision to combine the proof-of-citizenship mandate with government funding complicates prospects for accomplishing that task. The bill is not expected to advance in the Democratic-controlled Senate, if it gets that far at all.

But the effort could help Johnson, R-La., next year if House Republicans maintain their majority and he seeks to become speaker again. The vote could also give Republicans an issue to attack Democrats in key competitive districts as Republicans make immigration-related issues a cornerstone of the campaign.

“Today, House Republicans are taking a critically important step to keep the federal government funded and secure our federal election process,” Johnson said Friday. “Congress has a responsibility to do both, and we must ensure that only American citizens can decide American elections.”

Democrats will overwhelmingly oppose the GOP effort and warn that any resolution adopted must have bipartisan support. They said Johnson was making the same mistake that then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., made a year ago when he tried to placate conservatives. They ultimately rebuffed his efforts, forcing him to rely on Democrats to push through a temporary spending bill. That fight led to eight Republicans joining Democrats just days later to oust McCarthy as House speaker.

“As we have said repeatedly, avoiding a government shutdown requires bipartisanship, not a party-crafted bill. President Johnson is making the same mistake former President McCarthy made a year ago, by wasting precious time pandering to the radical MAGA right,” Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Patty Murray of Washington state said in a statement, referring to Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. “This tactic didn’t work last September, and it won’t work this year.”

They said that if Johnson “leads House Republicans down this highly partisan path, the odds of a shutdown greatly increase, and Americans will know that the responsibility for a shutdown will fall in the hands of House Republicans.”

Schumer is the Senate Majority Leader. Murray heads the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The voter registration measure is popular among House Republicans. The House Freedom Caucus, which typically includes the chamber’s most conservative members, called for it to be attached to a stopgap bill that would keep the government funded through early 2025.

Republicans say requiring proof of citizenship would ensure that U.S. elections are open only to American citizens, boosting confidence in the country’s federal election system — something Trump has sought to undermine for years.

Opponents say it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and that document requirements would disenfranchise millions of people who do not have the necessary documents available when they have the opportunity to register, for example, at a concert, a county fair or a college voter registration drive.

In an earlier vote on the voter registration bill, Republicans unanimously backed it, while all but five Democrats voted against it. President Joe Biden’s administration strongly opposed that measure, saying the purported justification for the bill is easy to refute.

Some Republicans argue that if Schumer allows a vote, assuming the bill passes the House, then the government shutdown will fall on him.

“If Chuck Schumer decides he doesn’t want to run it, then Chuck Schumer decides he wants to shut down the government. That’s not us,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said during an interview on Fox Business News.

Trump and other Republicans have stepped up their complaints about the issue of noncitizens voting with the influx of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border under the Biden administration. They maintain that Democrats let them in to add them to the voter rolls. But available evidence shows that noncitizen voting in federal elections is incredibly rare.

Another major issue that must be addressed as part of the short-term spending bill is how long to extend funding. Before the August recess, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said he preferred that the next president be able to pursue top priorities without the distraction of a complicated spending fight.

But the House Freedom Caucus is confident Trump will win the White House and put the GOP in a better position to secure the spending cuts and policy priorities it wants. That’s why it wants to extend funding until after the inauguration in January.

Congress returns to Washington on Monday after spending the past five weeks in its home states and districts. The short-term bill is needed because the House and Senate are far from finished with their work on the dozen annual spending bills that keep government agencies and programs running through the next budget year.

So far, the House has passed five of the 12 annual spending bills, while the Senate has passed none, though the Senate has opted to take a more bipartisan approach to the challenge by advancing 11 of the bills through the Senate Appropriations Committee with broad support from lawmakers in both parties. Meanwhile, Republicans in the House are using their majority to push through bills with the vast majority of Democrats in opposition.

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