Top Dems squeeze defectors on shutdown fight
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House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on the House floor on Oct. 20, 2023. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images.
Look for House Democratic leaders to lean hard on their members not to break ranks and vote for Republicans' planned bill to keep the government funded past September, top Democratic sources tell Axios.
Why it matters: Democrats are keeping a close eye on Republicans' own defectors and want to deny Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) votes from their side that he might need to keep the measure from going down.
- Three senior Democratic sources told Axios they expect a full whip operation against the GOP spending bill, which would attach a measure aimed at cracking down on non-citizen voting.
- Battleground district Democrats, under threat of Republican attacks if they oppose the non-citizen voting measure, will likely face considerable pressure from their party not to break ranks.
- Democratic leaders also want to deny Republicans leverage to argue that the Democrat-controlled Senate should take up the bill if it makes it out of the House.
Driving the news: House Republicans plan to hold a vote as soon as early next week on legislation called a continuing resolution to extend government funding at current levels until March.
- They plan to attach the SAVE Act, requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
- That bill passed with support from swing-district Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Don Davis (D-N.C.), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.).
- One senior House Democrat described that SAVE Act as a "poison pill" and predicted the spending bill won't get "serious numbers" of Democratic votes due to its inclusion.
State of play: The federal government will shut down after Sept. 30 unless Congress passes legislation to keep it funded.
- Fiscal negotiators have agreed on full government spending legislation, meaning a temporary stopgap is needed.
- Conservatives have pressed their leadership to kick the spending fight to March to avert a lame-duck spending bill and give a potential Trump administration the opportunity to negotiate a spending package.
- But the Democrat-led Senate is all-but-certain to reject any spending bill that includes the SAVE Act, putting the two chambers in a stalemate.
What we're hearing: Democratic leadership's campaign to keep its members in line could tank the GOP spending bill on the House floor if Republicans face defections of their own, the senior House Democrat argued
- "We only had four or five votes on the Democratic side" on the SAVE Act, the lawmaker said. "I don't think that's enough to overcome the fiscal hawks on their side."
What to watch: Republicans are planning to begin whipping the bill Monday.
- The legislation will have to clear several procedural hurdles on which Democrats are likely to stay together – making just a handful of GOP defections potentially fatal.
Axios' Juliegrace Brufke contributed reporting for this story.
