Will Congress manage to pass bipartisan spending bills this time around?

After a weekslong recess, Congress is expected to hit the ground running soon to tackle government spending again following lengthy negotiations that ended roughly a few months ago.
But this time around, the stakes are higher, as the spending negotiations come before the upcoming election, which could determine the fate of not only the White House but control of Congress as well.
According to the Cook Political Report, it’s unclear whether Republicans will maintain the majority in the House. Meanwhile, Republicans are on pace to gain a majority in the Senate.
With funding set to expire on Sept. 30, Congress must pass the 12 spending bills or a continuation resolution, or CR, that would adhere to present spending levels.
Punchbowl News reported that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will introduce a continuing resolution when Congress returns to session next week.
It’s possible the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or the SAVE Act, will convince more Republican representatives to vote in favor of a stopgap resolution.
The legislation would require people registering to vote in federal elections to provide proof of citizenship and amend the National Registration Act of 1993.
As the Deseret News previously reported, when registering to vote, a person would need to provide an ID consistent with the requirements of Real ID — this also includes passports or U.S. military ID cards.
“Hats off to Speaker Johnson for attaching the SAVE Act to the September spending bill,” said Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who introduced a similar reform in the Senate, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“If it’s a ‘nonstarter’ with Democrats to deter noncitizens from voting, they’re going to have to explain that,” Lee said.
The SAVE Act has also earned former President Donald Trump’s approval.
Technically, Johnson has to comply with the deal between former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and President Joe Biden, who in 2023 agreed to raise the debt limit and limit spending for two years.
This meant a nearly $1.59 trillion cap on military and nonmilitary discretionary spending in 2024. In the current fiscal year, the cap will be at $1.6 trillion. But House Republicans deviated away from this agreement last year, opening the door for more changes this year.
Earlier in May, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., made it clear his caucus will not support spending lower bills than the already agreed-upon levels.
Democrats and the White House are also strongly opposed to the SAVE Act. Jeffries, in his remarks then on the House floor, said the bill would “jam people up and prevent Americans from voting” instead of solving a problem.
Johnson needs at least 218 votes for the bill to cross the required threshold but not all members of his party are convinced.
With Election Day a little more than two months away, lawmakers are dissuaded from threatening a shutdown.
Some Republicans support such a yearlong stopgap measure in hopes that it would address the issue when Trump gets reelected, giving the former president more sway over the legislation. But some GOP representatives, including the ones involved in drafting the spending bill legislation, don’t think it’s a good idea.
“I think they believe — which I agree with — we will win the presidential, and they think that will give them more leverage,” House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole said earlier this year, according to The Hill.
He noted that similar strategies deployed in the past have not yielded results. Per the report, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said, “Look, my problem is a CR just keeps the same spending in place. You either end up with an omnibus. Some people want to do a full-year CR.”
“Why don’t we just actually do the budget bills? … The whole thing is so convoluted, messed up and crazy,” he added.