House GOP opposition tanks Johnson’s short-term funding plan

Speaker Mike Johnson’s six-month government funding plan failed on the House floor Wednesday amid yet another rebellion within the House Republican conference over spending.

The collapse, which was expected, follows a weeklong effort to shore up support for Johnson’s stopgap, which would leave federal agencies with largely static budgets through March 28. It also included legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, known as the SAVE Act. GOP leaders pulled the package from the floor last week amid the same internal party problems, pushing forward with a vote Wednesday despite dim prospects for passage.

Fourteen House Republicans ultimately joined most Democrats to sink Johnson’s stopgap proposal on Wednesday, culminating in a 202-220 vote, with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) voting present. Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine), Don Davis (D-N.C.) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) were the Democrats who voted for the measure.

Johnson has repeatedly struggled this year to muster enough support to pass GOP funding bills, thanks to many of the same disagreements over spending currently plaguing his conference.

Those dissenting Republicans defied the calls of former President Donald Trump, who weighed in a few hours before the vote, redoubling his demands. “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,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Although a government shutdown on Oct. 1 remains unlikely, Johnson and GOP leaders are now left without a fallback plan to stave off a funding lapse in less than three weeks. The failure increases the likelihood that House Republicans will wind up with a three-month stopgap spending bill, free of any divisive policy add-ons. Senate appropriators are readying their own spending patch through December but haven’t made a move while Johnson sorts through his options.

“I assume that if [House Republicans] can’t pull it off today, then they pivot to something else and hopefully process it in time for them to vote next week and for us to vote next week and make sure it’s all done before September 30,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said earlier Wednesday.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), a senior Republican appropriator, said it would be wise to have a backup plan, adding that he would support a stopgap into December — the option endorsed by some Republicans, Hill Democrats and the White House.

“There always needs to be a Plan B and a Plan C because we don’t want to shut the government down,” he said, adding, “We have another chamber we’ve got to satisfy as well.”

Once again, Johnson finds himself in the likely position of having to rely on Democrats to shepherd must-pass spending legislation through the House, as he did back in March with passage of two fiscal 2024 government funding packages. Some conservatives have said they’re unwilling to support a short-term spending patch, no matter what.

“We do not need today’s vote,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democratic appropriator in the House, who said the lower chamber could have passed a “clean” stopgap through December last week. “But we’ll go through this ritual.”

Republican appropriators left a meeting with Johnson on Tuesday night saying they’re in lockstep with the speaker, supporting his six-month plan paired with the SAVE Act. But privately, they’ve been urging Johnson to call a vote on a so-called continuing resolution through December, stressing that the six-month option is untenable, especially for the military.

Spending leaders on both sides of the aisle also want the stopgap to buy only enough time to wrap up fiscal 2025 government funding talks by the end of the calendar year, leaving a clean slate for a new administration and the next Congress in January.

“The goal is to make sure that the speaker has as much leverage as possible,” said Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.), a senior Republican appropriator, before meeting with Johnson on Tuesday night. “A short-term CR is what I’d like to get for him, for the Republicans.”

Lawmakers are also weighing add-ons to the stopgap spending bill for agencies and programs that can’t limp along on flat budgets in the coming months. That includes disaster aid and a potential funding boost for the Secret Service following two failed assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump, although some lawmakers are skeptical that more money will address the agency’s needs.

There’s bipartisan agreement, however, on the need for language allowing the Secret Service to spend money at a faster rate.

Jennifer Scholtes and Joe Gould contributed to this report.