Government shutdown threat concerns Texans in Congress

AUSTIN (Nexstar) – The House of Representatives is facing an Oct. 1 deadline to pass a spending bill and avoid a government shutdown with the election only weeks away. House Speaker Mike Johnson canceled a vote Wednesday that would have combined a temporary spending bill with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, Act due to doubts on whether it could pass.

The SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and is backed by former President Donald Trump and opposed by Democrats. Other concerns include the length of a stopgap bill which could force the new president to focus on a spending bill quickly after taking office in January.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, voted for the SAVE act but acknowledges that a continuing resolution with the act wouldn’t pass the Senate.
“Under federal law you have to be a legal citizen to vote and [the SAVE Act] tries to enforce that at the state level,” McCaul said. “There’s a lot of loss of faith in our elections and something like this I think would give people more confidence.”

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said the SAVE Act would unnecessarily disrupt the upcoming election.

“It does not apply just to immigrants. It applies to all of us. If you don’t have your birth certificate, if you don’t have a passport, it’s not good enough to use the REAL ID that gets you through airport security, you won’t be able to vote,” Doggett said.

He believes there is no room for compromise on the act.

“Weeks before the election is supposed to begin, that will cause chaos, and maybe that’s what the objective is,” he said.
Doggett said that the House needs to pass a continuing resolution, but that that is not an ideal solution.

“The disadvantage of a continuing resolution is it’s putting in place last year’s funding without any adjustments for needs at the Defense Department or elsewhere,” Doggett explained. He blamed Republicans for failing to pass appropriations bills, setting up the need for a continuing resolution.

Doggett is hopeful that the Senate will pass a so-called clean continuing resolution, without other legislation attached and Speaker Johnson will allow the House to vote on it. Democrats have a 51 – 49 majority in the Senate.

“Some feel it’s to their advantage to threaten to shut down everything in order to get their way, and we’ve had one after another,” Doggett said. “This particular one is really ridiculous.”
McCaul also pushed back at the potential for a shutdown.

“I’ve never been a fan of that because that doesn’t accomplish anything,” he told reporters in Washington. “At the end of the day, it hurts our military more than anything,” McCaul added.
The congressman chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. With two decades on Capitol Hill, he’s been through several shut down standoffs before.
“I’ve been doing this for 10 terms and I’ve seen this movie before,” McCaul said.

One difference this time is the uncertainty of who will be in the White House. Some Republicans are pushing for a CR that lasts until after next year’s Presidential inauguration, with the hope that Trump wins the election. Others want the CR to expire before lawmakers leave Washington for the holidays. Which version, if any, will move forward is unclear.

“I don’t have a crystal ball,” McCaul said.