A growing number of House Republicans are pushing for a clean continuing resolution (CR) that kicks the shutdown deadline to after Election Day, likely December 15th. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) scrapped plans for the House to vote on his conservative funding bill Wednesday when it became clear it didn’t have anywhere near the GOP votes to pass, catapulting the conference back to square one with less than a month until the shutdown deadline. Many House Republicans are concluding that a bipartisan stopgap is inevitable, so it would be in their best interest to get it over with sooner rather than later. It is unclear whether Republican leaders can salvage the six-month CR and Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act package, which faced widespread opposition, including from hardline conservatives, defense hawks and moderate Republicans. Another option being discussed could be a six-month CR without the SAVE Act attached. That would achieve conservatives’ goal of avoiding an end-of-year omnibus, and potentially set up a new Trump administration to enact more far more conservative funding priorities. But the six-month timeline itself has faced plenty of opposition from both parties and would leave in limbo many of the items that need to get wrapped up post-election in a lame duck session. Speaker Johnson has said his leadership team will continue to work through the weekend to flip GOP defectors and “We’re having thoughtful conversations, family conversations, within the Republican conference, and I believe we’ll get there. People have concerns about all sorts of things. That’s how the process works and sometimes it takes a little more time.”
For today, before adjourning for the week, the House passed H.R. 7980 – End Chinese Dominance of Electric Vehicles in America Act of 2024 on a 217 – 192 vote. The White House has issued a veto threat against the bill which would block Inflation Reduction Act incentives for any electric vehicles that contain battery materials that were extracted, processed, recycled, manufactured or assembled in a “prohibited foreign entity.”
The Senate convened at 10:00 A.M. and is continuing its work on judicial nominations and will take up Confirmation of the nomination of Laura Margarete Provinzino to be United States District Judge for the District of Minnesota and a Motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of Kevin Gafford Ritz to be United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit.
