WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday rejected a proposal by House Speaker Mike Johnson to link additional state funding for six months to a requirement for proof of citizenship when registering to vote, calling it “frivolous and unacceptable.”
The answer sets the framework for the spending dispute that will loom in the coming weeks as lawmakers work to build consensus on a short-term spending bill that would prevent a partial government shutdown at the start of the modern fiscal year on Oct. 1. Lawmakers hope to avoid a shutdown just weeks before the election.
Johnson is postponing final spending decisions for the full year until next year, when a modern president and Congress take power. He is doing so at the urging of his party members, who believe Republicans will be in a better position next year to secure the funds and policy priorities they want.
However, Jeffries said the appropriations process should be completed before the end of the current calendar year and the short-term measure should reflect that. It also needs to be free of “partisan political changes,” Jeffries said.
“There is no other viable path that protects the health, safety and economic well-being of hard-working American taxpayers,” Jeffries wrote in a letter to House Democrats released Monday.
Lawmakers return to Washington this week after the time-honored August recess, which they spent mostly in their home states and districts. They are far from finished working on the 12 annual appropriations bills that will fund agencies in the next fiscal year, so they must pass a stopgap measure.
The House bill requiring citizenship verification for voter registration complicates the effort. The voter registration measure is popular with Republicans in the House. The House Freedom Caucus, which normally includes the most conservative members of the chamber, called for it to be included in the budget bill.
Republicans say requiring proof of citizenship would ensure that only American citizens can vote in U.S. elections, boosting confidence in the nation’s electoral system, which former President Donald Trump has tried to undermine over the years.
Opponents argue that noncitizens are already prohibited by law from voting in federal elections and that the modern document requirement would disenfranchise millions of Americans because they did not have the necessary documents when registering.
Trump and other Republicans have ramped up their complaints about noncitizen voting rights amid the influx of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border under President Joe Biden’s administration. They claim Democrats let them into the country to put them on the voter rolls. But the available evidence shows that noncitizen voting in federal elections is incredibly uncommon.
Johnson called the citizenship requirement a “just fight” as he entered the Capitol on Monday afternoon. He said that even if a diminutive percentage of people who entered the U.S. illegally end up registering to vote, “they can rig the election. This is a serious matter.”
Democrats in the Senate have also spoken out against Johnson’s proposal. And representatives of the Biden administration have also spoken out against the bill. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that long-term resolutions like the current one, which will be voted on in the House of Representatives this week, will impair military readiness.
In a letter to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Budget Committees, Austin wrote that if the bill passes, it would be the second year in a row and the seventh time in the past 15 years that the department has experienced delays in implementing key priorities.
“These actions place unnecessary stress on Soldiers and their families, empower our adversaries, waste billions of dollars, harm our readiness, and hamper our ability to respond to unexpected events,” Austin wrote.
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Associated Press congressional reporter Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
