By Catie Edmondson and Luke Broadwater
Speaker Mike Johnson earlier this week abruptly canceled a vote on his initial plan to avert a government shutdown, as opposition to the six-month stopgap funding measure piled up in both parties.
It was a bruising setback for Johnson coming only a few weeks before a Sept. 30 deadline Congress faces to fund the government or face a shutdown.
In short remarks just off the House floor around midday Wednesday, Johnson told reporters that he would not go ahead with the planned afternoon vote on the spending plan, saying that “we are in the consensus-building business” and adding that he was working with a slim majority.
As early as Monday, it appeared clear that the measure was doomed on the House floor. Resistance from an array of Republican factions bubbled up almost immediately after lawmakers returned to Washington from a lengthy summer recess earlier this week. And Democrats rejected it in part because it contained legislation they oppose to require proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote, a policy they say is unnecessary and could make it more difficult for eligible voters to register.
Johnson’s abrupt announcement threw a wrench into efforts to keep the government funded beyond Sept. 30. The Democratic-controlled Senate and White House have said they would reject the short-term spending bill even if Johnson could muster the votes for it in the House.
But his decision not to go ahead with the vote Wednesday indicated that efforts to whip Republicans into supporting the legislation were not yielding results, potentially sapping Johnson of any negotiating leverage he might have had.
The $1.6 trillion proposal would have extended current spending levels through March 28.
Its critics came from across the political spectrum. Defense hawks objected to the legislation because it would essentially hold military spending flat, and conservative hard-liners balked at extending current funding levels they believe are too high. Democrats panned the inclusion of the voting measure, which they have condemned as xenophobic and based on a groundless claim that Democrats are trying to allow hordes of noncitizens to vote illegally in November so they can steal elections.
Former President Donald Trump, who has lodged that false claim repeatedly, has urged Republicans not to fund the government without the voting restriction. Johnson had gone to bat for it, casting his move to link the stopgap spending measure to it as a “righteous” battle.
“This is a conviction I feel deep in my heart,” Johnson said Tuesday of pairing the two measures. “I think it’s something we must do. That’s why it’s worth fighting for.”
The situation created an unwelcome sense of déjà vu on Capitol Hill, where House Republican leaders, driven by demands from their right flank to cut spending and rein in immigration at the southern border, have picked fights for the last two years over the annual spending process.
In most cases, the Republican speaker has been unable to muster the votes within his own conference for even a GOP version of a short-term spending bill — a measure conservatives despise because it extends, rather than cuts, funding levels.
That has resulted in House Republicans swallowing bipartisan spending legislation carried by the mainstream factions of both parties, to the chagrin of ultraconservatives in the conference.
There is little appetite among most lawmakers for a shutdown just weeks before the November elections. But Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, on Tuesday ordered members of his party to shut down the government unless they received “absolute assurances on Election Security.”
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