Johnson scores win as conservative rebels end House floor blockade over voter ID bill
House conservatives ended their weeks-long blockade of the House floor Tuesday, handing Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a key victory after the rebellion brought legislative business to a standstill for nearly a month.
The House successfully passed a procedural vote 215-211, teeing up votes on an appropriations bill funding the State Department, legislation making daylight saving time permanent and a measure seeking to improve veterans’ benefits.
Johnson also agreed to pair the State Department funding bill with the SAVE America Act, prompting several conservative holdouts to flip their votes after demanding the House increase pressure on the Senate to pass the stalled measure.
Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., was the lone Republican to oppose the rule, while all Democrats voted "no" during a party-line procedural vote.
The conservatives had blocked all major House legislation since late June in an effort to force GOP leaders to hold floor votes on the Trump-backed SAVE America Act and a sweeping border security bill.
Given House Republicans’ slim majority, Johnson could afford to spare just a handful of GOP defections.
The speaker has been under mounting pressure to get the House moving again and advance a backlog of legislation ahead of the November midterm elections.
GOP leaders are racing to draft the blueprint for a third "big, beautiful bill" in addition to clearing government funding bills before the Sept. 30 deadline and a potential supplemental package covering the price tag of the Iran war.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who was among the GOP rebels who effectively shut down the chamber to pressure the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, agreed to unlock the floor after Johnson proposed pairing the election measure with the State Department appropriations bill.
Johnson sought to attach the SAVE America Act to the House’s version of an annual defense policy bill before the July 4 recess, but Luna continued the blockade anyway.
"If John Thune strips it out in the Senate, that will be on him and the entire country should be watching what he does," Luna wrote on social media Monday.
Thune, who is supportive of the SAVE America Act, has repeatedly insisted that the votes do not exist in the upper chamber to pass the Trump-backed legislation amid unified opposition from Democrats.
That leaves House Republicans with little leverage to force Senate action on the SAVE America Act.
Some of the GOP holdouts had also threatened to oppose the rule unless House Republican leadership agreed to schedule a vote on a border security package.
Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are advocating for a vote on the Permanent Trump Secure Border Act, which would codify several Trump executive orders targeting illegal immigration, including and end to catch-and-release policies.
"We need to deliver on codifying border security, deal with the birthright citizenship issue," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said. "These are all issues people that I represent care about intently and that we've talked about doing, and we need to deliver."
In a potential sign of trouble for GOP leadership, some holdouts criticized Johnson's planned legislative goals for the week.
"Making Daylight Saving Time permanent won’t matter at all if we don’t have election integrity," Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, wrote on social media Monday, referring to the SAVE America Act. "Priorities."
Self voted "yes" during the procedural vote.
The GOP rebels' hardball tactics frustrated many House Republicans, who argued the strategy risked backfiring and paralyzing the conference's legislative agenda.
"There's a small group of Republicans who are upset at the Senate, as I think all of us are," Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., told Fox News Monday. "But I don't know how ... if you're upset at the Senate, why do you take it out on the conservative Republican agenda in the House?"
But some conservatives argued the House should do whatever it takes to get the SAVE America Act to President Donald Trump's desk.
Trump has repeatedly said the election integrity measure is his top legislative priority. He even refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill last week aiming to boost supply and lower costs in protest of the SAVE America Act.
"We shouldn't vote on anything else unless it has the SAVE [America] Act, period," Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said Monday.
"Ideally, the Senate ought to take it up every day and make them vote on it and do a talking filibuster and keep them up all night," he continued. "That's the best course of action. I don't think they'll do that."