Former President Trump is making a last-minute push for House Republicans to adopt a short-term government funding package that includes language pertaining to voting, multiple sources told The Hill.
Such legislation would differ from Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) current plan and complicate efforts to prevent a government shutdown next week.
Trump made calls to multiple House Republicans who voted against a previous stopgap bill — which paired a six-month continuing resolution (CR) with a bill to require proof of citizenship to register to vote — in order to get their support for a three-month CR combined with a voting provision, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Two sources said Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller also made some calls.
They made the calls Tuesday and Wednesday — after Johnson had unveiled a clean CR that runs through Dec. 20. The House prepared to vote on the legislation Wednesday evening ahead of the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline.
One of the sources said Trump noted he had spoken to Johnson about the idea. The source did not disclose the Speaker’s response, but Johnson is plowing ahead with a vote on the clean CR.
It is unclear what voting provisions would be included in the legislation Trump was pitching, whether it was the Safeguard Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act — which the Speaker dropped after last week’s failed vote — or some “simpler” language related to the former president’s contention that undocumented immigrants appear on voter rolls.
Two GOP sources said that several, but not all, of the 14 members who voted against the CR last week — most of whom did so out of opposition to the use of a stopgap — were prepared to switch their position to support the three-month CR with additional voting language that Trump was pushing.
But going with Trump’s last-minute plan, even if it clears the House, would likely lead to a government shutdown.
Senate Democrats and the White House have insisted on passing a “clean” continuing resolution — which was the outcome of bipartisan and bicameral negotiations. Democrats had deemed the SAVE Act a nonstarter.
“If he got what he wanted, there would absolutely be a shutdown,” one of the sources said.
The Speaker’s office declined to comment when reached by The Hill. The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Shifting the stopgap strategy at this stage would be exceedingly difficult for GOP leaders, who on Tuesday announced that previously scheduled votes Thursday and Friday were canceled, due in part to a hurricane heading for the South.
Part of the original strategy from the six-month CR-plus-SAVE Act play was to use the GOP-supported voting bill as a negotiation point with Democrats. But with less than a week until an Oct. 1 shutdown deadline, there would be little time to negotiate for an alternative before the lights are scheduled to turn off in Washington.
A shutdown, however, appears to be part of the point for Trump.
The former president has previously advocated for GOP lawmakers to force a shutdown unless the government funding legislation included the SAVE Act, despite Republicans overwhelmingly saying that a shutdown would hurt Republicans ahead of the November elections.
“If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Updated at 3:26 p.m.