The White House warned of an impending government shutdown before the election, and House Republicans did not respond as they wanted.

GOP leaders sent a proposal to the Biden-Harris administration which would fund the government through late March of next year but it would require that states verify citizenship when people register to vote, The Epoch Times reported.

“Today, House Republicans are taking a critically important step to keep the federal government funded and to secure our federal election process,” Republican Speaker of the House and Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson said after the draft text was announced.

“Congress has a responsibility to do both, and we must ensure that only American citizens can decide American elections,” he said.

But the Democrat leadership, including Senate Majority Leader and New York Sen. Charles Schumer and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Washington Sen. Patty Murray were critical of the idea.

“As we have said repeatedly, avoiding a government shutdown requires bipartisanship, not a bill drawn up by one party. Speaker Johnson is making the same mistake as former Speaker McCarthy did a year ago, by wasting precious time catering to the hard MAGA right. This tactic didn’t work last September and it will not work this year either. The House Republican funding proposal is an ominous case of déjà vu,” they said in a joint press release.

“If Speaker Johnson drives House Republicans down this highly partisan path, the odds of a shutdown go way up, and Americans will know that the responsibility of a shutdown will be on the House Republicans’ hands,” they said.

The proposed continuing resolution wants to avoid a partial shutdown by keeping federal funding at current levels until March 28, 2025. It would continue funding for essential government services and agencies, like  defense, education, and health care, which would give Congress more time to negotiate for more funding for 2025.

“The bill also introduces major changes to voter registration through a section titled the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act,” The Epoch Times report said.

“It requires individuals to provide proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate, or military ID, when registering to vote in federal elections, barring states from processing voter registrations without this documentation. Additionally, the bill requires states to actively remove noncitizens from voter rolls, using databases including the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE system,” it said.

Trump, meanwhile, discussed the SAVE Act, out-of-control illegal immigration under Vice President Kamala Harris’ watch, and his desire to see the government shut down over the issue if need be in an interview with former Fox News host Monica Crowley’s podcast on Monday.

“Mr. President—election integrity and the Harris no-borders policy. It’s not open borders, it’s no borders, which, of course, now she’s trying to run away from. You support the SAVE Act, which would block non-citizens from voting in this election and in the future. Do you support adding the SAVE Act to the spending bill that Congress is going to take up next month in September to try to get it into law before this election?” Crowley, who served as the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of the Treasury during Trump’s administration, asked.

“Absolutely. And I think you should also change your elections to paper ballots,” Trump responded. “I think you should get a lot of things for that. That’s a big deal. When they extend that bill, they’ll extend it again and again. The Republicans ought to try and get some things for a change—the House and the Senate—they ought to go for getting things. They don’t get anything. They extend everything. Then it comes due.

“Let’s say I win the election, then you know where it comes due, Monique? It comes due for me. The Democrats don’t extend. They don’t extend. They play a different game. They play a much different game. That’s what they ought to do. We’ll see what they do,” the former president continued.

“But if they don’t get the SAVE Act, if they don’t get much tougher than the SAVE Act—the SAVE Act is just one element—they ought to go into a whole thing where you want to have borders. They ought to focus on borders. The House bill that was passed—that’s the real bill that should be passed, but the original one, not this horrible one that was foisted upon us by some people that had a bad day,” Trump added.