House lawmakers leave DC until September with government shutdown deadline looming

The House of Representatives is officially off to an early start for its summer recess – a five-week period when lawmakers are back home in their districts focusing on local issues and their own re-election bids.

They will return on Sept. 9 – exactly three weeks from the deadline to fund the government in the next fiscal year.

That means the GOP-run House will have to compromise with the Democrat-controlled Senate or risk a partial government shutdown, with some federal offices shuttered and potentially thousands of government employees furloughed.

It’s all but certain at this point that a short-term extension of the current year’s funding, known as a "continuing resolution" (CR), will be needed to avoid a partial shutdown.

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Capitol Hill is in for an intense funding fight when House lawmakers return in September. (iStock)

"I've always said we'd have to do a CR," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., told reporters earlier this week. "And then whoever wins the election will make the decision. Do you want a deal by the end of the year, or do you want to kick them to the next Congress? I hope, my advice to whoever wins, would be do it by the end of the year." 

House GOP leaders had laid out an ambitious plan to finish their 12 individual appropriations bills before the current recess, momentum that was derailed by intraparty disagreements about where Republicans’ starting point should be.

GOP rebels pushed for spending bills rife with culture war amendments on issues like transgender surgeries and abortion, arguing that it was the Republicans’ right as a majority to leverage from the most conservative starting point.

Rank-and-file Republicans, however, were uneasy about being forced to take politically unpopular votes on measures that would not become law anyway, with no chance of passing the Democrat-controlled Senate.

So far, six of 12 bills have passed the House floor, while the Senate has not passed any.

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House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole said a stopgap funding bill is likely necessary. (Getty Images)

The main discussion when lawmakers return in September will likely surround what a CR would look like in terms of length and what, if any, riders are attached.

Allies of former President Trump have pushed for a CR to extend into the new year in the hopes that Republicans will take back the White House and Senate. But senior GOP lawmakers expressed concern that it would add unnecessary drama to what’s already expected to be an action-packed first 100 days of the new administration. 

Some Trump allies are now also pushing for any CR to be paired with the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act), a GOP-backed bill that would add a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the voter registration process.

"We have been in session week after week for months after Speaker Johnson passed a two part omnibus, fully funding the Biden/Harris agenda in May…For what? Messaging? When the reality that we ALL know is that we will be forced to vote on a CR by Sept 30th which is the government funding deadline," Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wrote on X.

"And since we all know a CR is coming you would think we would be working on one that makes an impact like attaching the SAVE Act for example because our elections matter. But nope, we are up here voting at 9 pm tonight on bills that won’t see the light of day in Schumer’s Senate for nothing."

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wants a Trump-backed elections bill attached to a potential stopgap funding deal. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In his comments to reporters earlier this week, however, Cole signaled that he was not enthusiastic about the idea.

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"I haven't really thought about it yet, it’s not a big deal to me. But again, if it can't pass the Senate, it isn't going to be an effective CR," Cole said. "So a real CR, you know, I'm more interested actually in disaster relief. That's something that I think the two sides can come together on."

When reached for comment earlier this week about GOP frustrations over the spending process, a spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Fox News Digital: "The House has made significant progress in advancing FY25 appropriations bills. The House Appropriations Committee has diligently moved all 12 bills out of committee and the House has passed 75% of government funding for the upcoming fiscal year, while the Senate has yet to even consider a single appropriations bill. The House will continue its successful effort to responsibly fund the government for FY25 when it returns from its district work period."