Speaker Johnson unveils short-term spending bill, urges members to avoid shutdown

House Speaker Mike Johnson outlined more plans to avoid a government shutdown in a letter to members on Sunday.

Johnson’s plan, known as a limited continuing resolution, would fund the government through Dec. 20 and allocate $230 million to fund the Secret Service.

“Next week, the House will take the initiative and pass a clean, three-month CR to prevent the Senate from blocking us with a bill weighed down by billions in new spending and unrelated provisions,” the Louisiana Republican wrote in his letter. “Our legislation will be a very narrow, bare-bones CR, including only those extensions that are absolutely necessary. While this is not the solution any of us prefer, it is the most prudent path forward under the current circumstances.”

Government funding is due to run out at the end of the month, and Johnson said in his letter on Sunday that he did not want to shut down the government in the weeks before the election.

“As history teaches us, and as current polls confirm, it would be political dishonesty to shut down the government less than 40 days before a fateful election,” he said. “From now until Election Day, I will continue my tireless efforts and focus solely on increasing our majority in the 119th Congress.”

Top Democrats in Congress, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, praised the bipartisan negotiations that led to a funding agreement “free of cuts and poison” and signaled quick passage of the stopgap bill before the deadline.

“If both sides continue to work in good faith, I am hopeful that we can complete our work on the CR this week, well before the September 30 deadline. The key to completing our work this week will be bipartisan cooperation in both chambers,” Schumer said in a statement on Sunday.

Jeffries signaled that House Democrats will evaluate the spending legislation when members return to Washington on Monday evening, but he praised the negotiated legislation as being “devoid of any partisan, right-wing policy shifts.”

Johnson’s bill comes after the House on Wednesday failed to pass a six-month GOP funding plan that included a controversial measure targeting noncitizen voting, an effort pushed by Donald Trump. The former president has called for a government shutdown if lawmakers fail to pass the ballot measure, known as the SAVE Act, into law.

Johnson said Friday that he believes Trump understands that House Republicans do not have the votes to pass the SAVE Act, a GOP-led bill that passed the House in July. The measure would require documented proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, despite the fact that it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.

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