AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The march to Election Day continues this week. Vice President Harris attends a roundtable with the Teamsters here in Washington tomorrow, and former President Trump rallies in Flint, Mich., on Tuesday. Meanwhile, current President Biden gears up for a summit, and Congress seems to be spinning its wheels a bit. NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram is here to lay out the week in politics. Good morning, Deepa.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: Hey, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So you and I spoke at this very time last weekend and talked about some of the items on Congress's to-do list, like a government funding bill. But that didn't happen this past week, did it? What did happen?
SHIVARAM: Yeah, that's right. So the funding bill is the main thing on Congress's to-do list, and it still hasn't happened. And now they only have about two weeks left to pass this stopgap measure to temporarily fund the government. And the deadline to get it done is September 30. And if they don't pass anything, there would be a partial government shutdown. And since you and I spoke last week, what's essentially happened is that there was supposed to be a vote on this measure on Wednesday, but House Speaker Mike Johnson had to delay that vote because there just isn't enough support for it to pass.
RASCOE: Is there a clear path for it?
SHIVARAM: At this point, there are a lot of lawmakers who are saying they don't want the government to shut down, but there's still arguments over the same issue of what some Republicans are trying to tack onto the government funding bill - right? - which is that measure we talked about that would require proof of citizenship before someone can register to vote. Democrats, of course, are highly opposed to that. And there's infighting among Republicans themselves - lots of differing opinions. Johnson said that GOP members were going to have conversations this weekend and potentially hold that delayed vote sometime this coming week.
RASCOE: So what's standing out to you on the campaign trail at the moment?
SHIVARAM: Well, the debate happened this past week. That was definitely a big moment. It was the first time that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have ever met and probably the only time they'll debate this election. Harris is adamant that there should be a second debate. That was something the campaign put out pretty much as soon as the debate ended - right? - this past week. But Trump has already shut that idea down. He's not willing to debate again.
And in the days after the debate, Trump campaigned in states like Nevada and Arizona, while Harris was in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and I was actually on the road with her at two events in Charlotte and Greensboro, N.C., and one thing that stood out to me is a line she's been saying a lot, which is criticizing Trump for wanting to replace the Affordable Care Act but not fully having a plan on how to do it. On the debate stage, Trump said he had, quote, "concepts" of a plan, right? And Harris has been talking about that pretty much at every event since the debate happened.
RASCOE: Meanwhile, President Biden is still in the Oval Office. When you're at your booth in the White House, which I'm familiar with, does it seem quieter and like a lame-duck administration, or is the Biden administration still pushing ahead, even though he's not running for reelection?
SHIVARAM: I feel like it's a both-and. And it's definitely a much different White House than when Joe Biden was both the president and the candidate. And, you know, the days have been quieter. There have been fewer events. The White House has insisted that this is not a lame-duck kind of a situation, but feels like that on a lot of the days. Biden does still have issues he's dealing with. Foreign policy has definitely been a focus for him in the last couple of months. The White House announced a few days ago that Biden would host the Quad leaders, who are the prime ministers from India, Japan and Australia, for a summit at his home in Wilmington, Del., this coming week.
RASCOE: NPR's Deepa Shivaram. Deepa, thank you so much.
SHIVARAM: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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