(Headline USA) Senate Democrats led by majority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., face a difficult dilemma as the current stopgap resolution expires and the deadline once again approaches for a new bill to fund the government.
On one hand they could allow commonsense election integrity measures of the SAVE Act—which many on the Left acknowledge is already codified in U.S. law and, at worst, redundant to existing laws—to clear Congress and head to President Joe Biden’s desk for a signature.
Alternatively, they could face a government shutdown ahead of the upcoming U.S. election and risk incurring the wrath of taxpaying citizens in order to retain the ability to let illegal immigrants and other ineligible voters continue to engage in election meddling and vote fraud.
Amid widespread resistance from Democrats over the idea of taking up an election-integrity bill, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has tethered the vote this week on a bill that would keep the federal government funded for six more months to one sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, that requires states to obtain proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, when registering a person to vote.
Congress needs to approve a stop-gap spending bill before the end of the budget year on Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown just a few weeks before voters go to the polls and elect the next president.
On top of other concerns for the current Biden–Harris administration, a shutdown could potentially could force the Pentagon to cut off its endless supply of weapons and hundred of billions of dollars in funding to Ukraine, as well as limit dubious projects like Gaza’s $320 million “dock to nowhere” that the military ultimately abandoned in July.
Indeed, the Pentagon is warning that the previous levels allocated for its wasteful warmongering initiatives won’t come close to funding what it has planned for the coming year.
Passage of a six-month temporary spending bill would have widespread and devastating effects on the Defense Department, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said in a letter to key members of Congress on Sunday.
Austin said that passing a continuing resolution that caps spending at 2024 levels, rather than taking action on the proposed 2025 budget will hurt thousands of defense programs, and damage military recruiting just as it is beginning to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Asking the department to compete with [China], let alone manage conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, while under a lengthy CR, ties our hands behind our back while expecting us to be agile and to accelerate progress,” he wrote in the letter to leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees.
Austin said the stop-gap measure would cut defense spending by more than $6 billion compared to the 2025 spending proposal. And it would take money from key new priorities while overfunding programs that no longer need it.
Under a continuing resolution, new projects or programs can’t be started. Austin said that passing the temporary bill would stall more than $4.3 billion in research and development projects and delay 135 new military housing and construction projects totaling nearly $10 billion.
It also would slow progress on a number of key nuclear, ship-building, high-tech drone and other weapons programs. Many of those projects are in an array of congressional districts, and could also have an impact on local residents and jobs.
Since the bill would not fund legally required pay raises for troops and civilians, the department would have to find other cuts to offset them. Those cuts could halt enlistment bonuses, delay training for National Guard and Reserve forces, limit flying hours and other training for active-duty troops and impede the replacement of weapons and other equipment that has been pulled from Pentagon stocks and sent to Ukraine.
Going forward with the continuing resolution, said Austin, will “subject service members and their families to unnecessary stress, empower our adversaries, misalign billions of dollars, damage our readiness, and impede our ability to react to emergent events.”
Noting that there have been 48 continuing resolutions during 14 of the last 15 fiscal years—for a total of nearly 1,800 days—Austin said Congress must break the pattern of inaction because the U.S. military can’t compete with China “with our hands tied behind our back every fiscal year.”
Johnson’s bill is not expected to get support in the Democratic-controlled Senate, if it even makes it that far. But Congress will have to pass some type of temporary measure by Sept. 30 in order to avoid a shutdown.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
