Sen. Rick Scott is circulating a plan among Senate Republicans to head off another government shutdown later this year, and he wants the idea in front of President Trump before Wednesday's lunch with GOP senators at the Capitol.
Scott's pitch is simple: if annual spending bills are not finished by the Sept. 30 deadline, Republicans should rally around a continuing resolution that freezes funding levels and keeps the government open through the November midterm election. He also wants Republicans to treat the fight over U.s. Government Shutdowns and election-security legislation as their two main priorities for the rest of the year.
The timing matters because Scott is not talking about a vague fallback. He is trying to shape how Senate Republicans respond before the spending clock runs out, while Trump is set to sit down with them and before the 12 annual bills face the deadline that usually decides whether there is a full-year deal or a stopgap. His letter, sent Monday, presses colleagues to support a clean stopgap funding measure and to keep the government funded until after voters go to the polls in November.
He is also trying to tie the funding fight to election security. Scott says Republicans should make another effort to pass the SAVE America Act, or at least pieces of it such as a photo identification requirement for voters, and he wants a separate shield for workers if a shutdown happens through the Shutdown Fairness Act or the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act of 2025. That measure would provide continuing appropriations, limit official travel and curb congressional recesses during a shutdown or partial shutdown.
Scott's argument leaves little room for compromise. He says Democrats are unlikely to help pass any of the 12 annual spending bills before Sept. 30 and that they want a shutdown on October 1st because they believe it helps their path to a majority in November. He has also said Republicans need to make it clear that Democrats want fraud, while Republicans want election security and a funded government. Earlier this year, Senate Democrats voted against a voter-identification amendment sponsored by Jon Husted.
That clash is playing out alongside a separate fight between Chuck Schumer and Susan Collins over negotiations on a top-line spending limit. Schumer accused Collins of refusing to sit down with Democrats, and Collins said he was misinformed about the talks. But Scott's plan is aimed at a faster, more immediate question: whether Senate Republicans will accept a clean stopgap now, or risk a third government shutdown in the 119th Congress while they argue over the rest.
