Vulnerable Republicans warn of ‘idiotic’ government shutdown – Washington Examiner

This concern runs counter to the wishes of former President Donald Trump, who pushed Republicans to pass citizenship voting legislation as part of any funding bill before the Sept. 30 deadline, risking a partial shutdown.

But since there are currently not enough votes to pass the SAVE Act, the voter identification law, with a six-month spending package, Congress is heading toward a possible shutdown of Parliament – at a time when voters are most preoccupied with the election.

“There are 54 days until the election and Americans are focused on issues of affordability, food costs, energy costs and housing costs,” said Republican Rep. Mike Lawler (NY), who is running for re-election in an undecided district. “I think any shutdown would be idiotic and would undermine the focus on the issues that actually affect Americans.”

The circumstances are nothing new: disagreements over the budget usually drag on until the last minute as both parties struggle to get their own priorities in. A final agreement is often not reached until hours before the deadline. And even then, the agreement often does not resolve the issue, but instead pushes the deadline back to later in the year with a temporary solution.

Lawmakers saw that this time last year, when House leaders struggled to pass a budget deal amid divisions within the GOP conference and some hard-line Republicans publicly calling for a shutdown if their demands weren't met. That ultimately led then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to strike a last-minute deal that depended primarily on Democratic votes.

But this time, calls for a shutdown come just two months before a crucial election – and are worrying some lawmakers whose races are close and could be upended if the government shuts down.

“The American people will determine the outcome of this election, and we certainly don't need to shut down the government in the meantime,” Lawler added.

The House was originally scheduled to vote on House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) proposal to continue the resolution on Wednesday, but the package was pulled from consideration just hours before the vote due to a lack of support from Republican lawmakers. Now the House is still at an impasse just three weeks before the government funding cutoff is set to occur.

The time pressure has made some at-risk officeholders nervous and led to calls for an interim budget authorization solution to be passed to avoid a shutdown of any kind.

“Every day that brings us closer to a shutdown makes our elections more difficult. Once we pass a CR, things will calm down again,” said a Republican in the House of Representatives who is running in an undecided district that ^ “Washington Examiner”.

Others criticized their colleagues who openly called for a shutdown, noting that they lived in deep-red constituencies and would probably not feel the same impact as voters in difficult constituencies.

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“I think we're in a close-combat politics, and some of the decision-makers in the offices have never been in close combat,” said another GOP lawmaker. “We can't shut down.”

It is not yet clear what the spending proposal will look like. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives are expected to continue discussions over the weekend before reconvening on Tuesday. Congress is scheduled to recess on September 27 until Election Day. If the government goes into a shutdown on October 1, Congress would likely be stuck in Washington, DC, negotiating a deal and no longer engaging in campaigning.