McConnell’s comments come as the deadline to pass the annual budget to fund the government is just weeks away. Current funding expires Sept. 30, and without an extension, most federal government operations would shut down Oct. 1 as millions of voters are already beginning early voting ahead of the election.
“I think we first have to wait and see what the House sends us. My only observation about this whole discussion is the one thing you cannot have is a government shutdown,” McConnell said, speaking to reporters at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “It would be politically beyond stupid for us to do that because we’d get the blame.”
McConnell says it would be “beyond stupid” to do a government shutdown right now before an election and that the Republicans would get the blame for it. pic.twitter.com/kHVYgsCyIJ
— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) September 17, 2024
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has indicated he plans to move forward with a vote on Wednesday on his government spending proposal even though the legislation is likely to fail on the floor due to a lack of support among Republican lawmakers.
The proposal would extend current government spending levels until the end of March 2025. It would also attach the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voter registration.
It’s not clear whether the legislation has enough support to advance the House, which was a concern Johnson faced last week, when the speaker pulled it from consideration due to a lack of support from nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers.
“We’ve been here before. I’m for whatever avoids the government shutdown, and that’ll ultimately end up obviously being a discussion between the Democratic leader and the speaker of the House as to how to process avoiding government shutdown,” McConnell added.
Former President Donald Trump has waded into the funding fight, which could further complicate discussions. The GOP presidential nominee has said if Republicans don’t receive “absolute assurances” on election security, they should not pass a government stopgap measure.
If the House is unable to pass the bill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has indicated the upper chamber may move forward with its own clean continuing resolution to extend funding into mid-December.
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Schumer said he hopes Johnson will begin to engage in joint conversations with the Senate regarding funding the government later this week.
“The way to get this done is bipartisan, bicameral,” Schumer said, speaking to reporters on Tuesday. “We’ve told that to Speaker Johnson as we told it to Speaker McCarthy before. And we hope after this vote, he will sit down and negotiate a bipartisan, bicameral bill.”
