A diverse group of House Republicans sunk Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) proposal to fund the government on Wednesday, dealing an embarrassing blow to the GOP leader and derailing his strategy to avoid a shutdown at the end of the month.
Fourteen Republicans joined virtually every Democrat in voting against the spending plan — which paired a six-month stopgap bill with a measure that would require proof of citizenship to vote — bringing the final tally to 202-220, with two voting present. Three Democrats crossed the aisle to back the measure.
The Speaker faced a troika of GOP opposition, with hardline conservatives criticizing the use of a continuing resolution; defense hawks voicing concern about the impact the long-term funding bill would have at the Pentagon; and moderates expressing worries about having a shutdown threat so close to the election.
“I look at the spending, and I think that’s one of the largest issues that we have in our country, is $36 trillion in debt, and I look at a bill that’s continuing the excessive spending,” said Rep. Beth Van Duyne (Texas), one of the GOP opponents.
The result was not a surprise: Johnson yanked a planned vote on the measure last week over widespread opposition, and a majority of those critics reiterated their resistance this week.
The vote outcome, nonetheless, is putting the Speaker in a bind. It leaves the path to averting a shutdown unclear, puts him in danger of disappointing former President Trump and his conference’s right-flank, and threatens to thwart his efforts to remain GOP leader in the next Congress.
Johnson, to be sure, was going to need a plan B avert a shutdown even if the bill passed the House, since it has no chance of progressing in the Senate, where Democrats voiced opposition to the six-month timeline and the inclusion of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which Trump is demanding be included.
Democrats have noted that it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote, and they have expressed concerns about placing extra burdens on eligible voters. Johnson, though, pushed ahead with the plan — which would extend funding through March 28 — in an attempt to gain leverage over Senate Democrats in forthcoming negotiations.
The Speaker had remained defiant amid the growing pressure, insisting on holding a vote on the legislation despite the mounting opposition and brushing aside any notion of a plan B.
“We’re on the field in the middle of the game, the quarterback is calling the play, we’re gonna run the play,” Johnson said Wednesday. “We do the right thing day by day and we have a big playbook, of course, with all sorts of ideas in it. But when you’re on the field and you’re calling a play, you run the play.”
On Tuesday, the Speaker told reporters, “I’m not having any alternative conversations.”
But with Wednesday’s failed vote officially in the rearview mirror — and the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline inching closer — Johnson is being forced to regroup. The way forward, though, remains unknown.
Lawmakers in both parties and chambers have publicly and privately said that they see the current funding fight ending with a “clean” three-month continuing resolution, a product that would set up another showdown after the November elections but before lawmakers break for holiday recess in December.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has urged his House GOP counterparts to proceed in a bipartisan manner to keep the lights on in Washington, hammering away at Johnson’s attempt at a partisan stopgap.
“I hope that once the Speaker’s CR fails he moves on to a strategy that will actually work: bipartisan cooperation,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “It’s the only thing that has kept the government open every time we have faced a funding deadline. It’s going to be the only thing that works this time too. Bipartisan, bicameral cooperation. That’s what works. That’s what we’re willing and happy to do.”
Senate Republicans are also privately losing patience with Johnson’s gambit and growing increasingly alarmed that Congress could stumble into a shutdown. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said Tuesday that doing so would be “politically beyond stupid.”
A clean stopgap bill, however, would spark intense howls from hardline conservatives in the House, who are pushing for a long-term continuing resolution. It would also anger Trump, who has urged Republicans to shut down the government if the funding legislation does not bolster election integrity.
The former president re-upped his position Wednesday afternoon, hours before the vote, writing on Truth Social “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.”
The dynamics are posing a challenge for Johnson, who is working to grow his House GOP majority and hoping to remain Speaker next year — the latter of which will require buy-in from hardliners to come to fruition. His prospects for continuing his tenure as GOP leader would also improve with the backing of Trump, especially if he wins the presidential election in November.
Averting an Oct. 1 shutdown is the last legislative undertaking Johnson will face before the November elections.
While the Speaker has not yet revealed his next move, he has a handful of options — all of which carry risks.
Johnson could attempt to pass another partisan spending proposal with hopes of gaining leverage in forthcoming negotiations with the Senate, an effort that would be difficult with the razor-thin GOP majority. Or he could move forward with a “clean” short-term stopgap, which would have a strong chance of averting a shutdown but land him in hot water with his right-flank.
As Johnson weighs his next move, the Senate could begin the process for clearing its own stopgap which, if successful, could force Johnson to act on that. Senate GOP Whip John Thune (S.D.), however, told reporters on Wednesday that there is enough time for the House to attempt to pass another proposal before moving forward with their own funding measure.
“If it fails today, I assume they pivot to a plan B,” Thune said. “I don’t [know] for sure exactly what that looks like, but I think we’ve got to give them a little bit of time to hopefully originate over there and send something here, which we can process next week.”
Democrats, meanwhile, are continuing to pull for the clean, three-month stopgap that they say is inevitable.
“We need a date not next March, but we need a date in December, for which we can try to move the ball forward, then we will go and negotiate the programs and the amount of money that we need,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. “We wasted another week looking at what we believe is the conclusion of today, which will go down. Strange phenomenon.”
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