6-month stopgap funds bill yanked from House floor

WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to tie a six-month spending extension to a voting restriction bill pushed by former President Donald Trump was stymied Wednesday as the Louisiana Republican was forced to pull the package from the floor schedule.

Johnson announced his decision mid-day Wednesday in the face of certain defeat instead of pushing forward with the planned vote around 4:30 p.m. He said GOP leaders would continue to work on the package to try to shore up votes over the weekend, in hopes of bringing it back to the floor as soon as next week.

“The whip is going to do the hard work and build consensus. We’re going to work through the weekend on that,” Johnson told reporters shortly before the House convened at noon. “No vote today because we’re in the consensus-building business here in Congress. With small majorities, that’s what you do. …We’re having thoughtful conversations, family conservations, within the Republican conference, and I believe we’ll get there.”

Despite vowing to push forward with the current text, the speaker and his allies will likely need to pivot to a new strategy to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the month — or wait and see if the Senate will take action to move its funding extension to mid-December.

Both anti-spending conservatives and defense hawks who don’t want to pause new programs and wait six months to increase the Pentagon’s budget said they would vote against the bill. House Armed Services Chairman Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala., said the bill would be “terrible” for the Defense Department.

The inclusion of legislation that would require those registering to vote to show proof of citizenship, known as the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act,” or “SAVE” for short, alienated Democrats. Only one — Maine’s Jared Golden — publicly backed the temporary spending measure.

Trump has called on Johnson to “close it down” if he can’t get the voting legislation attached to the stopgap bill. But the reaction to Johnson’s plan this week made it clear that strategy can not secure the votes needed to pass the House.

With that element likely to be dropped at some point, the next fight will be over the duration of a more “clean” extension. Johnson and some House Republicans believe that they will get a better fiscal 2025 spending deal next year with Trump back in the White House and more Republicans in Congress.

But Democrats in both chambers and Senate Republican appropriations ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, all prefer a shorter stopgap, to mid-December. Senate appropriators are working on a short-term stopgap that would run through Dec. 13, though the drafting of that bill is not expected to be complete until next week.

Still, Johnson on Wednesday vowed to press on with getting the voting eligibility bill through somehow.

“I want any member of Congress, in either party, to explain to the American people why we should not ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting in U.S. elections,” Johnson said. “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.”