House Speaker Mike Johnson is now proposing a 3-month continuing resolution and additional funding for Department of Homeland Security. Some Republicans are against the December deadline or considering any major legislation during a lame-duck session of Congress.
House Republicans have unveiled their plan B to avoid a government shutdown after failing to pass
a six-month continuing resolution last week. NTD's Washington correspondent Luis Martinez
has more details on House Speaker Mike Johnson's new proposal. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's
new proposal to avoid a government shutdown would extend current levels of government funding
through December 20th of this year, pushing the funding battle over to a lame-duck session of
Congress after the general election. Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries praised the new
proposal in a statement. According to Jeffries, the continuing resolution currently under
consideration is now consistent with the spending levels agreed upon in the Bipartisan Fiscal
Responsibility Act. It is also devoid of any partisan right-wing policy. Some House Republicans
are against the December deadline or considering any major legislation during a lame-duck session
of Congress. I'll take some level of reform, but I'm not going to take no reform. It's also
particularly bad to kick this into December. It's a lame-duck where there's maximum level of
unaccountability for elected officials. I think it's a terrible idea to go to December. Other
House Republicans are against a continuing resolution altogether and would rather see
government spending levels reduced. Would you be willing to vote for a clean CR? No, no, I'd like
vote on a budget. We've been up here all year. In 30 years, we haven't done a budget. We haven't.
And it's what we're constitutionally mandated to do. We don't do it. The proposed plan would also
add $231 million to the Department of Homeland Security's budget for the protective operations
of the Secret Services during the presidential campaign and national special security events.
Government shutdowns don't help anybody. They actually cost more money. There's no savings
there. So, to me, this is not a function of saving money, and it would be the height of
stupidity to shut the government down just before an election. In the last 50 years, Congress has
only properly passed all 12 appropriation bills on four separate occasions. In the last decade,
Congress's inaction has already caused three government shutdowns.
Reporting from Washington, D.C., Luis Eduardo Martinez, NTD News.
