EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is convinced that American voters care more about having secure elections than the politics of a possible government shutdown, he said Tuesday,
"My constituents want [honest elections], they want a secure border, they don't really give two flying s---s about the government funding," Roy told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Members of Congress will be back in Washington, D.C., next week after their summer recess, returning with just three weeks to find an agreement to avoid a partial government shutdown by Oct. 1.
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It’s all but certain that a short-term funding extension called a continuing resolution (CR) will be needed to buy negotiators more time to hash out spending priorities for fiscal 2025.
Roy and other conservative rebels in the House have been pushing Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to pair a CR with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a bill to require proof of citizenship for registering to vote.
But the SAVE Act has been deemed a nonstarter by the White House and Senate Democrats, and both sides are wary about the optics of a partial government shutdown just weeks before Election Day.
Roy declined to say whether he would support a shutdown but told Fox News Digital the blame would be on Democrats rather than Republicans.
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"I’m not going to play the shutdown game … the press wants to make it about a shutdown. Democrats want to make this about a shutdown," Roy said. "Our point is pretty simple. We’re offering to fund the government – all manners of sin, by the way, in that government – we’re willing to do that, but these guys need to make sure our elections are secure."
"If [Democrats] want to shut the government down, that’s on them."
Two sources told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that pairing the bill with a CR through March is at least one plan being discussed by House GOP leadership.
Johnson’s office did not return a Friday request for comment on the record on whether that would be his plan. Fox News Digital followed up on Tuesday.
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Former President Trump said on Monica Crowley’s podcast last week that House Republicans should "shut down the government" if such a proposal isn’t passed.
Meanwhile, House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., previously said he would support a CR through December but cast doubt on whether the SAVE Act would be attached, noting any final product would have to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate.
But Roy’s comments are an early warning sign that the fight to fund the government in the next fiscal year could be as messy as last year’s protracted battle that resulted in the ouster of ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
