US House Republicans set vote for must-pass spending bill with voting requirement

By Moira Warburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives plans to vote Wednesday on a stopgap spending bill that would extend government funding for six months and require Americans to provide proof of citizenship when they vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Tuesday.

The vote sets up a confrontation with the Senate, where Democrats who control the chamber say any spending bill should not be paired with the voting requirements Republicans want.

"I urge the House to be serious, come to the table, work together to reach bipartisan agreement," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference.

Unless a stopgap spending bill is sent to President Joe Biden by midnight Sept. 30, the end of the government's current fiscal year, many agency operations will cease and thousands of federal workers would be furloughed for lack of funds.

Last week, Johnson had to abandon his attempt to pass a spending bill when it became clear he did not have enough support for passage from his rank-and-file Republicans.

It is not clear whether he will succeed this time. Republicans can afford few defections in order to pass legislation with their narrow 220-211 majority, and at least one of them said on Tuesday that the bill would not do enough to restrain federal spending. 

"I'm a 'hell, no,'" Representative Thomas Massie wrote on social media.

A shutdown could upset voters in the weeks before the Nov. 5 elections, with control of both the House and the Senate at stake.

The last government shutdown occurred at the end of 2018 and stretched well into January 2019.

Johnson's decision to pair must-pass spending legislation with controversial new voting restrictions could raise the likelihood that lawmakers will not be able to reach a compromise by the Sept. 30 deadline.

Fueled by Republican former President Donald Trump's false claims about election fraud, the Republican voting bill would require those registering to vote to provide proof of U.S. citizenship and compel states to purge suspected noncitizens from their voter rolls.

It is already a felony for a noncitizen to vote in a federal election. A 2017 study found only 30 instances of suspected noncitizen voting out of 23.5 million votes cast the previous year.

Democrats describe the bill as a voter suppression effort, and President Joe Biden's administration has said the legislation would do nothing to safeguard elections.

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, a moderate who occasionally breaks with her party, predicted Congress would ultimately pass a spending bill without the controversial voting provisions -- but only after Johnson tries to pass his version. 

"I'm hoping we learn quickly what the House can and cannot do so we can move here," she said.

(Reporting by Moira Warburton and Katharine Jackson in Washington; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)