House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., canceled plans Wednesday for a vote on a new government spending bill, 19 days before the existing bill expires and would trigger a shutdown amid resistance from both parties—a fight that weighs on the GOP’s chances of holding on to control of the House.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., talks with reporters after a meeting of the House Republican ... [+]
The bill Johnson was backing would have continued funding the government at current spending levels through March 28 and tacked on a measure that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
Trump on Tuesday urged Republicans to reject the bill if the voting provision was not included, writing on Truth Social “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.”
Johnson pulled the bill when it became clear that he did not have the votes to pass the legislation under the slim 220-211 GOP majority in the House, with multiple Republicans expressing plans to vote against the legislation for various reasons, including some, such as Rep. Tom Massie, R-Ky., who said they oppose it, because it doesn’t cut existing spending levels.
Even if Johnson could get the votes, it would be a non-starter in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and the White House has said President Joe Biden would veto the bill, calling the voter-ID provision “unrelated cynical legislation” in a statement Monday, while also criticizing no increase in military funding.
If the stopgap bill passes without the voter-ID provision, it would undermine Trump, and if the GOP refuses to pass any spending plan without it, triggering a shutdown, it risks angering swing-district voters.
Trump has repeatedly suggested without evidence that Democrats are facilitating illegal immigration and helping register undocumented migrants to vote. Voting by noncitizens is already illegal, and attempts to defy the law are rare. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said earlier this month that more than 6,500 noncitizens have been removed from the state’s voter rolls since 2021, a small fraction of the nearly 18 million registered voters in the state. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger also said his office found that 1,634 noncitizens tried registering to vote between 1997 and 2022, but elections officials flagged their applications before they could actually cast their ballots.
- That’s the number of House seats in toss-up districts Republicans are defending in the November election, while Democrats are defending 10.
Biden signed the existing $1.2 trillion spending bill in March to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year, which concludes Sept. 30. The budget was more than six months late after lawmakers passed what’s known as “continuing resolutions” four separate times to continue funding the government at fiscal year 2023 levels while they negotiated a full-year spending package. Johnson has repeatedly had to wrangle the small flank of far-right Republicans who have leveraged the GOP’s slim majority to force their demands in negotiations over the budget and a string of other legislative proposals. The spending plan negotiations are particularly delicate for Johnson as he would need the support of nearly all of his conference to win re-election to the speakership if Republicans retain control of the House.
Government Shutdown Averted—For Now: Biden Signs Bill Extending Budget For At Least Another Week (Forbes)