President Joe Biden would veto a stopgap government funding proposal if passed by Congress.
The Continuing Resolution (CR), which would keep the government funded for a six-month period, is linked to GOP-led Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, which would mandate states to require proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. Noncitizens caught voting under the proposed law could face fines and up to a year in prison.
The bill was slammed by the White House in a statement released Monday.
“Instead of working in a bipartisan manner to keep the Government open and provide emergency funding for disaster needs, House Republicans have chosen brinksmanship,” the statement reads.
The White House claims the CR would “place agencies at insufficiently low levels” and said the bill “fails to address key emergency funding needs.”
The statement referred to the SAVE Act as an “unnecessary … unrelated cynical legislation that would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but would make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls.”
“It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections—it is a Federal crime punishable by prison and fines,” the White House continued. “This behavior is wrong and the law clearly prohibits it. In addition, making a false claim of citizenship or unlawfully voting in an election is punishable by removal from the United States and a permanent bar to admission. States already have effective safeguards in place to verify voters’ eligibility and maintain the accuracy of voter rolls.”
“If the President were presented with H.R. 9494, he would veto it,” the White House concluded.
The SAVE Act was passed as a stand-alone bill in July, with 198 Democrats opposed.
As SCNR previously reported, several states have discovered thousands of noncitizens listed on voter rolls this year, which is a direct violation of federal law.
“This month alone, more than 16,000 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in 3 states,” Florida Sen. Rick Scott said in an Aug. 28 post on X. “It’s a serious problem — and as the next Senate GOP Leader I’ll make sure we fix it.”
Welfare offices and other agencies in at least 46 states are providing voter registration forms to migrants without requiring proof of citizenship, the New York Post reported.
Days before Scott’s post, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a statement revealing that officials in his state had removed more than 1.1 million ineligible voters from voter rolls, including over 6,400 noncitizens. Abbott added that nearly 2,000 of these noncitizens had voted in elections.
“The length of the stopgap would punt the next funding battle into March, when Republicans are hopeful Trump will be back in the White House and can put his stamp on negotiations,” The Hill reports. “Republicans can afford to lose only four of their own members if all Democrats vote 'no' on the continuing resolution. At least two GOP lawmakers — Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Matt Rosendale (Mont.) — have already come out against the legislation, and other Republicans have expressed skepticism about his strategy.”
Axios reports that the White House has met with Democratic leaders to devise a plan to push a short-term spending proposal that would keep the government funded through mid-December.
“The Biden administration's embrace of a three-month stopgap measure is an attempt to establish the terms of the spending debate with House Republicans, who are pushing for a six-month bill,” the outlet reports. “If Congress and the White House can't agree on how to fund the government by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, the federal government will shut down in early October, weeks before Election Day.”
Axios added: “The December timeline Democrats want would require Congress to return to the Capitol for a lame-duck session when lawmakers — and the next president — would know who was going to control what branches of government starting in January.”
