If Speaker Mike Johnson’s intention was to prove that Republicans don’t have the votes to pass a GOP-only government funding bill, mission accomplished.
On Wednesday, the House rejected Johnson’s funding plan in a 202-220 vote, with 199 Republicans and three Democrats voting yes, and 14 Republicans and 206 Democrats voting no. Two Republicans — Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie — also voted present.
It’s another embarrassing floor defeat for the speaker in a year of embarrassing floor defeats. Even if Johnson always intended to illustrate to Republicans that they have to work with Democrats to pass a funding bill — shorn of the GOP provisions on requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote — 16 defections will sting for Johnson.
But the embarrassment may be the point.
The writing wasn’t just on the wall for the doomed fate of this bill; it was etched into the marble of the House chamber.
The bill’s demise was so written in stone that Reps. Nick LaLota and Anthony D’Esposito of New York didn’t even show up for the vote. They skipped to attend Donald Trump’s rally in Long Island.
Johnson’s plan was fairly transparent. He hoped House Republicans could pass the SAVE Act — the proof of citizenship requirements — attached to a six-month government funding bill. The idea was that if you can convince the GOP conference to pass the combined legislation, it may be more difficult for Senate Democrats to strip the SAVE Act from the continuing resolution before sending it back to the House.
At least, that was the idea.
In reality, Senate Democrats have always been steadfast that the SAVE Act was going nowhere near one of the president’s special commemorative law-signing pens. But at least Republicans could have put Democrats in a tougher political position — in the House by challenging them to vote no, particularly after five Democrats voted for the SAVE Act as a stand-alone, and in the Senate by shaming them about removing the SAVE Act.
But instead of putting pressure on Democrats, Johnson simply illustrated that he has no choice but to work with the other party. Unable to pass their own bill, Republicans have to rely on Democratic votes to advance a government funding measure — at least if they want to avoid a shutdown before the November election.
Johnson and other GOP leaders clearly want to avoid that outcome. Donald Trump, not so much.
“If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday, just hours before the vote. “BE SMART, REPUBLICANS, YOU’VE BEEN PUSHED AROUND LONG ENOUGH BY THE DEMOCRATS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN. Remember, this is Biden/Harris’ fault, not yours!”
The argument that a shutdown is Democrats’ fault is much tougher, however, if Republicans can’t even pass a government funding bill on their own.
GOP leaders on Capitol Hill seem to understand that dynamic. Johnson putting the measure on the floor, knowing it would fail, was a recognition that he had to demonstrate the challenges of his job.
“When you’ve got a four-vote margin, ‘most’ don’t matter,” Rep. Drew Ferguson, a former chief deputy whip who supported the bill, told NOTUS on Wednesday. “‘All’ matters.”
Hours before the vote, confident the bill was going down, Johnson still implored his Republican colleagues to support the spending plan during a closed-door meeting. Ferguson relayed Johnson’s message to NOTUS, using the speaker’s preferred method of messaging: football analogies.
This is the play call he’s going to run, Johnson said, and he asked members to be with him on it.
After the GOP conference meeting, when NOTUS asked the speaker if he’d let the government shut down, knowing the bill before the House was doomed, Johnson extended the metaphor.
“We’re on the field, in the middle of the game, the quarterback is calling the play, we’re gonna run the play,” he said.
Now that the play has failed, the question is what will Johnson call next.
Johnson kept going with the football analogies after the vote.
“We ran the play. It was the best play. It was the right one,” the speaker said. “And so now we go back to the playbook, drop another play, and we’ll come up with a solution.”
Senate Republicans — most notably Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — have been emphatic that Congress keep the government open before the election. Senate Democrats have seemed confident throughout the entire process that Congress would end up with a clean CR, likely for the duration that Democrats want: three months instead of six. (A shorter CR means lawmakers can come back after the election and approve a long-term spending plan under Joe Biden.)
Most Republicans have wanted to kick those decisions into the new year, when Trump may have potentially taken the White House. But other Republicans, like House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers and a number of like-minded defense hawks, want the shorter stopgap so the Pentagon can get more money sooner.
Among the 14 Republican no votes, six were Armed Services members — including Rogers.
With the current bill dead, one option before Johnson is to try to adjust the duration of the CR but see if he could pass it with the SAVE Act still attached. That may win him some GOP votes, but he clearly still has a problem.
The more likely scenario is that Johnson finally admits what’s been obvious all along: This process is ending with a clean CR.
While Republicans told NOTUS this week that they are judging Johnson on how much he’s able to win on this spending battle, it’s clear the speaker has a problem larger than one standoff. A big part of his problem is Trump.
As the former president insists that Republicans fight, Johnson and other lawmakers seem to know that only ends with the GOP caving — just after a shutdown and some adverse electoral effects for vulnerable Republicans.
Still, on Wednesday, Johnson insisted he’s staying in close communication with Trump.
“President Trump and I have talked a lot about this,” Johnson said. “We talked a lot about it with our colleagues who are building consensus on the plan.”
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Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
Katherine Swartz, who is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow, contributed to this report.