Congress has one more week in session to prevent government shutdown

House members returned to Capitol Hill on Monday afternoon to begin the final week of session before Election Day — and a possible partial government shutdown.

Congress has just five days to reach a deal on funding the government at the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1. If no deal passes the Republican-majority House and Democratic-majority Senate by then, thousands of federal workers could be furloughed and many government programs could be temporarily closed.

Both Republicans and Democrats agree that some kind of short-term extension of this year’s funding, known as a continuing resolution (CR), is needed to buy negotiators more time. But they differ on how to accomplish that.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, has not provided details of his plan after his plan for a six-month waiting period combined with a requirement to provide proof of citizenship in the voter registration process failed last week.

Fourteen Republicans joined all but three Democrats in voting to reject the bill, much to the disappointment of Johnson’s allies who had hoped it would be a strong start to negotiations with the Senate.

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Several GOP lawmakers who spoke to Fox News Digital last week said they expect Johnson to hold a vote on a “clean” CR by December — something Democrats and some senior Republicans want — which conservatives would see as an unequivocal defeat.

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Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, political chairman of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, made it clear he blames his fellow Republicans for leaving the GOP in this position.

“We tried to come up with a provision that would allow us to keep spending going into next year, would allow us to reconvene with a new Congress, hopefully a Republican House, Senate and White House… would clean things up so you don’t have to debate all this nonsense in December, would get rid of the omnibus bill and, oh, by the way, put a real fight on (the Protecting Americans’ Voting Rights Act),” Roy said.

“But they wanted to be the political Nostradamus and say, ‘I’ll tell you what’s going to happen.’ Well, no, it’s going to happen when you kill it in the cradle.”

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There is no guarantee, however, that Johnson’s CR will be just a “pure”, straight extension.

Several GOP lawmakers have suggested they would support allocating additional funds for the Secret Service or disaster relief under such a measure.

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Given that Johnson has a slim four-seat majority, it is almost certain that he will need Democratic help to get CR across the finish line.

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