The House handed Speaker Mike Johnson an expected defeat Wednesday, voting down his stopgap, six-month funding patch with a bill that requires proof of citizenship to vote.
Mr. Johnson’s play call would have pushed the government funding fight until March 28 and pressured the Democratic-led Senate to consider the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, but was doomed before it even hit the floor because of resistance from Republicans.
Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said after the vote he was disappointed that the stopgap did not pass, and reiterated the importance of the SAVE Act.
“We ran the play. It was the best play. It was the right one, and so now we go back to the playbook, draw up another play and we’ll come up to a solution,” Mr. Johnson said. “And I’m already talking to colleagues about their many ideas. We have time to fix the situation, and we’ll get right to it.”
The speaker received some backup from former President Donald Trump, who doubled down on his demand to pass the SAVE Act ahead of the election.
“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,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social. “Democrats are registering Illegal Voters by the TENS OF THOUSANDS, as we speak - They will be voting in the 2024 Presidential Election, and they shouldn’t be allowed to.”
Many Republicans supported the push to again force Democrats to consider the SAVE Act, but were unwilling to test the politically dangerous waters of shuttering the government ahead of the election.
“Governance by continuing resolution is not ideal,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, Oklahoma Republican said. “But we are out of time and we cannot afford a government shutdown that would be greatly damaging to national security, to critical government programs and to the American people. The stakes could not be higher.”
The pressure from Mr. Trump was not enough to sway the 14 members of the GOP who voted against Mr. Johnson’s play.
In all, the bill failed on a 202 to 220 vote, with two lawmakers voting present.
Though the majority of Democrats voted no, three joined with Republicans to support the measure. Some of those same Democrats also previously supported the SAVE Act when it passed the House in July.
Now Congress has seven working days to avoid a partial government shutdown before the Oct. 1 deadline to fund the government.
Democrats largely did not support the measure because of the addition of the election security measure, the length of the proposal, and what they saw as a shortage of money for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
They were also dissatisfied with funding for the Veterans Administration, which is facing a $12 billion budget shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year.
“This bill is an admission that the House Republican majority cannot govern, they would rather gamble on an intervening election than attempt to complete their work on time,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut Democrat, said. “Let us hope the majority does not drive us straight to a republican shutdown, but if they do shut down the government, I have no doubt the American people will know who is to blame.”
Republicans who did not support the stopgap disliked the measure for a variety of reasons. Some viewed it as a messaging ploy meant to apply pressure to Democrats ahead of the Nov. 5 election that was unlikely to result in substantive policy changes. Others were disappointed by the proposal’s lack of military spending increases.
Still others, like Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, have vowed to never vote for a continuing resolution. Mr. Mills argued that passing stopgaps would continue the status quo of spending in Washington — specifically passing a short-term resolution in September and then forge ahead with a colossal omnibus spending package in December — all of which adds to the nation’s massive debt rather than individually passing spending bills.
“This isn’t helping us to stay safer. This isn’t helping us to correct the out-of-control spending. This isn’t getting us back to where we should be,” Mr. Mills said. “So, I’ve never supported a CR or a minibus, or an omnibus and I’m not going to.”
There is also no concrete backup plan in place for another stopgap bill, but members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have begun working behind the scenes to construct an alternative, and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer implored Mr. Johnson to consider a more bipartisan approach.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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