Facing a widespread revolt on his plan to keep the government funded, Speaker Mike Johnson finally accepted reality Wednesday and chose one embarrassment over another: He pulled the bill from the House floor.
“We’re going to continue to work on this,” Johnson told reporters, saying conversations would continue into the weekend to “build consensus.”
“We’re having thoughtful conversations, family conversations, within the Republican conference, and I believe we’ll get there,” he said.
While part of the problem is that Johnson is trying to pass his six-month government funding extension with almost all GOP votes, the speaker said he remained committed to including the SAVE Act in the continuing resolution — a proof of citizenship requirement for registering voters that Republicans want and Democrats oppose on the grounds that it’s already illegal for a noncitizen to vote.
As long as the SAVE Act remains part of his plan, Democrats are unlikely to support Johnson’s funding extension. Still, the speaker was emphatic that the SAVE Act be included in the final product.
“We’re going to work on that issue around the clock because we have an obligation to the people to do it, and that’s what the fight is,” Johnson said.
The decision to pull the package from the floor comes after two days of defections from the House GOP conference. Before lawmakers even returned from their six-week recess, Johnson faced some problems from certain conservatives who said they thought his package was a ruse to just get a bill to the Senate and avoid a shutdown. But as Republicans came back to Washington, his vote problems became clearer, with conservatives demanding concessions and then defense hawks disliking the concessions and vowing to vote no because the bill wouldn’t add money to the Pentagon.
According to a source familiar with the negotiations, the defense revolt wasn’t exactly a surprise to GOP leaders. Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers has been expressing concern over a long-term CR for most of the summer. But the level of his opposition, advocating that Armed Services members vote no on the funding extension, wasn’t anticipated.
The sour feeling among defense supporters came from the “absence of a plan” from leadership.
Defense hawks have expressed concerns with Johnson’s six-month CR, worried it could impact military funding levels, but it wasn’t clear until this week how forcefully they would oppose the measure.
“These CRs are horrible for defense budgeting,” the source familiar told NOTUS. “We’re definitely willing to take a fight.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, one of those defense hawks, said Johnson needs to prioritize the military to get his colleagues onboard.
“The most obvious path forward is some kind of guarantee that we’re at least going to focus on defense and ensure that we don’t end up with a longer than necessary CR on defense appropriations,” he said. “That obviously hurts the ability of the military contract. It’s not like anyone disagrees with the SAVE Act.”
Johnson hasn’t elaborated on how he’ll convince hard-line members of his caucus to support the package. But without the support of defense hawks and conservatives, the legislation was headed to an embarrassing failure on the floor.
With government funding set to run out in 19 days, Johnson is staring down the possibility of a shutdown before — even on — Election Day. And he’s facing the reality that some members of his conference seem to want a shutdown, believing they can force Democrats to concede and get the SAVE Act signed into law. On Tuesday, Donald Trump demanded a shutdown unless the proof of citizenship requirement was part of a funding extension.
“If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET,” he posted on Truth Social. “CLOSE IT DOWN!!!”
Despite the GOP bearing most of the blame with the public for previous shutdowns, some Republicans still think this time would be different, that voters would see Democrats as the culprit if Johnson refuses to back down.
“It puts the shutdown squarely on the shoulders of the Democrats,” Rep. Glenn Thompson told NOTUS. He said Trump’s shutdown demand wouldn’t impact how congressional Republicans move forward — historical precedent be damned.
“He’s not really a part of this equation as far as I’m concerned,” Thompson said of the former president. “He’s not in the White House at this point. He’s not in Congress. And so we need to do our job.”
Despite the rapid disintegration of Johnson’s first funding attempt, some remain optimistic that Johnson does, in fact, have a plan.
“The speaker’s thought it out pretty well. I think he’s considered all the possibilities,” Rep. Ronny Jackson told NOTUS. “It’s probably the best thing we have going right now.”
But Democrats, of course, had a different take.
“It’s just another demonstration about how this majority cannot govern,” Rep. Mark Takano said.
Regardless, Johnson is moving forward with his original plan. He’s not conceding that Republicans need to pivot; he’s just saying the plan will take more time.
“We’re in the consensus-building business here in Congress with small majorities,” Johnson said.
—
John T. Seward and Katherine Swartz, who are NOTUS reporters and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows, contributed to this report. Oriana González, who is a reporter at NOTUS, also contibuted to this report.