Presented by BP.

Hey, good morning, everyone. I'm Playbook co-author Rachel Bade. It's Monday, September 9th,

and I'm still sick, so sorry for my voice. After weeks back home in their districts, lawmakers are

returning to Washington today with a spending fight already on their hands. Shocker there.

The government runs out of money three

weeks from today when lawmakers are hoping to once again ditch town and spend the final days ahead

of the election on the campaign trail. But first, they have to do their job, which is fund the government.

Congressional Democrats over the weekend panned Speaker Mike Johnson's opening bid to extend current

levels until March

and attach a bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. That's the safe act.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in a dear colleague letter yesterday that Democrats are

quote, not going to let poison pills or Republican extremism put funding for critical programs

at risk. Now, despite the standoff here,

we're going to make a little prediction this morning. You are not going to see a shutdown ahead of

election day for two reasons. Number one, Republicans eager to hold the House aren't reckless enough

to actually tip the government into chaos in the days before voters had to the polls. And number two,

despite the public outrage you're hearing, Democrats privately are quite surprised

and even heartened by what they're hearing from Johnson's opening offer.

Let's start with Republicans.

Johnson and his leadership team knew that Democrats would balk at this demand to add the Safe Act,

but the point wasn't exactly winning per se.

They knew they weren't going to. Rather,

...