The far-right House Freedom Caucus is gearing up for a government-shutdown fight at the end of September and a chaotic lame-duck session after the election, no matter who wins.
“In the inevitability that Congress considers a Continuing Resolution,” the House Freedom Caucus said in a statement Monday, referring to a possible short-term spending bill, “government funding should be extended into early 2025 to avoid a lame duck omnibus [bill] that preserves Democrat spending and policies well into the next administration.”
They want this so that “Democrats cannot undermine President [Donald] Trump’ second term,” in which Trump would expectedly obliterate the funding agreements that President Joe Biden and Congress made for the 2025 fiscal year.
That’s not their only demand, though.
In the statement, the Freedom Caucus also said the continuing resolution should include bogus legislation to prevent noncitizens from voting. The Freedom Caucus called on Republican House leadership to “use our leverage in the September spending fight to prevent non-citizens from voting in our elections.”
Noncitizens don’t vote, of course. As the Brennan Center for Justice explains, it’s a “federal crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. It’s also a crime under every state’s laws. In fact, under federal law, you could face up to five years in prison simply for registering to vote. It’s also a deportable offense for noncitizens to register or vote.”
What MAGA lawmakers are trying to do here is muddy the waters on election integrity. Trump has been lying about noncitizen voting all year, setting the stage for his inevitable voter-fraud/stolen-election claims if he doesn’t win in November.
That means that the few short weeks that Congress will be in session after Labor Day—and before it takes off for the whole of October to campaign—should be as unproductive and as chaotic as this whole session in the House has been. This session has resulted in just 78 public laws, far less than usual—and many of those simply name post offices.
Remember in July, when the House left early for August recess, abandoning House Speaker Mike Johnson’s promise that they would pass all of the funding bills on time? Remember how they couldn’t pass those bills because of GOP infighting?
It’s setting up a difficult September and a worse lame-duck session in which the GOP-led House will surely stay on theme and accomplish next to nothing.
Republished with permission from Daily Kos.
