MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Well, we've seen this movie before. Congress is barreling towards a government shutdown deadline as both parties dig in.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
But this time, it's an election year, and House Republicans are pushing a partisan bill that is drawing opposition from Democrats and members of their own party.
MARTIN: NPR's congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales has more. Good morning, Claudia.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So Republicans want to attach a plan to the stopgap bill that would require voters to prove their citizenship, obviously, to prevent noncitizens from voting. But I thought this was already against the law in federal elections.
GRISALES: Right. That's correct. They want to attach what they call the SAVE Act, but Democrats and even some Republicans think it will not save anything when it comes to funding the government. But House Speaker Mike Johnson compares it to underage drinkers accessing alcohol.
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MIKE JOHNSON: It is against federal law, but so is minors buying alcohol, but we still require identification to do it.
GRISALES: And former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee seeking reelection, weighed in yesterday to say Republicans should not agree to anything unless this provision is in this temporary funding plan. And the deadline to sort all of this out is September 30, so there's less than three weeks to go.
MARTIN: So, Claudia, you were telling us that Republicans have passed this before in the House, with the help of a handful of Democrats. So how is this time different?
GRISALES: Well, before, when it was passed earlier this summer in July, it was not tied to a funding plan to avert a government shutdown. So we're not expecting the handful of House Democrats who helped pass it before to help again. And I've also heard from a number of moderate Republicans who are not interested in bringing this up now either. Also, none of the leaders in Congress want to see a shutdown, and they all say this will get resolved.
So it's extremely common for one or both sides to start a negotiation, offering proposals they know will never get passed, usually to prove a political point, just like we're seeing right now ahead of an election. And, yes, now Democrats are adamantly opposed, and they want a relatively straightforward temporary funding bill that perhaps includes some disaster aid funding, such as for Hawaii, which is still seeing the island of Maui recover after fires last year. But that's likely it. Here's Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
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CHUCK SCHUMER: Only bipartisanship will help us meet that deadline. But instead of pursuing bipartisanship, Speaker Johnson is yet again - yet again - wasting time caving to the hard right, despite his razor-thin majority.
GRISALES: So Democrats say this proposal is dead on arrival in the Senate.
MARTIN: So is there a way out?
GRISALES: You know, most people I talked to think so, even those who are opposed to this plan in terms of temporary funding. Democrats and some moderate Republicans say the way out is to fund the government and leave these fights to the side. The SAVE Act was sponsored by Texas Republican Chip Roy, a member of the hard-right group, the House Freedom Caucus.
And Johnson has a tight margin in the House. He has to appease to that wing of his party, as well as his moderates. He has said a government shutdown is not an option, so it's possible that, in the end, Congress will reach a deal on a clean funding plan by the end of the month.
MARTIN: That's Claudia Grisales. Claudia, thank you.
GRISALES: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF AKIRA KOSEMURA'S "AONO & AKINE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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