House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana)'s first attempt to avert a government shutdown appears doomed to fail in the House floor this week due to widespread and growing Republican opposition, dashing his hopes that his proposal would stifle Democrats in both chambers.
At least six Republicans have announced they will vote against Johnson's plan, which combines a six-month continuing resolution with a Trump-backed bill that would require proof of citizenship to vote — more than the number needed to derail it. If every Democrat voted against it, Republicans would lose just four senators, assuming full attendance.
Growing Republican opposition has put Johnson in a tough spot, caught between restless supporters on the right pushing a long-running combination of CR and the Protect American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, moderates worried about the political fallout of a threatened government shutdown with the election so close, and hard-line GOP defense hawks raising alarms about how a six-month stopgap measure would affect the Pentagon budget.
But Johnson is adamant on the CR PLUS SAVE Act, vowing to push it forward despite White House promises that President Biden will veto it and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) planning to introduce an alternative, “clean” stopgap bill.
'There is no alternative,' says Johnson He told reporters“This is a just fight. This is a fight that the American people want and deserve,” he said during a speech on Capitol Hill on Monday.
But the opposition is threatening to block his plans.
The flurry of concerns publicly expressed Monday night was led by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, who said he opposed the spending plan because of its impact on the Pentagon.
“It's been a terrible six months for our defense,” Rogers said. Asked if other members of the Armed Services Committee would join in the opposition, he said “I hope so.”
Republican Reps. Matt Rosendale (Montana), Thomas Massie (Kentucky), Corey Mills (Florida), Tim Burchett (Tennessee) and Jim Banks (Indiana) have also publicly stated that they do not support the CR+SAVE Act, increasing pressure on Johnson in government funding negotiations.
“I'm not going to vote to extend bloated spending for another six months and add trillions of dollars to the national debt,” said Banks, who is running for Senate. “So it's an easy vote for me to say no.”
Some Republicans have warned that opposition is likely to intensify. Mills, who called deficit spending an “existential threat” to American democracy and suggested the SAVE Act portion of the bill was “the best message there is,” said she also expected a “significant number” of Republicans to vote against it.
Some of the opposition may come from moderate Republicans who have been skeptical of the plan from the start, with a source familiar with the matter telling The Hill that a “handful” of moderates are holding off on voting for the plan until they hear what Johnson's Plan B is.
One moderate Republican who described himself as “undecided” or “leaning against” told The Hill that he was “not convinced by the plan at this point,” and also highlighted Johnson's failure to provide details of an alternative.
“It's always good to know what the plan is after that,” the Republican said. “An analogy was made in one of these big meetings: 'Hey, when you go into battle, you never plan for failure.' But that's not actually true. When you go into battle, you do, and you do fail. We have contingency plans, from A to Z, to ensure success, if necessary.”
“Step one is to get this done. We know what step three is going to be: a clean CR or a government shutdown. So we don't know what the middle part is going to be,” the congressman added. “I'm waiting for that to be communicated. I think we owe it to our constituents to understand the dynamics here.”
“There is no alternative,” Johnson, a moderate Republican, said earlier in the day, but he criticized the move, saying, “The inference from that is that the next step is to shut down the government.”
“I don't agree with that,” they added.
Meanwhile, much of the public opposition comes from fiscal hawks who oppose any expansion of government funding in general and are unwilling to change their position on a bill that they believe is doomed to fail.
“I haven't supported CR in all the time I've been here, and I don't plan to support it now,” Rosendale told reporters. “I think this is an excuse that Congress has abused for years, and Congress hasn't finished the work of passing 12 appropriations bills in accordance with the Budget Act of 1974.”
Some fiscal hawks are struggling with their voting rights.
Rep. Eli Klain (R-AZ) said he hasn't decided yet, saying that while he likes the SAVE Act, he has never voted for the CR Act. Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) also said he is undecided because he doesn't know the total cost of the stopgap measure.
The skepticism of Klain, Rosendale and Self is notable given that they are all members of the House Freedom Caucus, which has issued public comment arguing for a stopgap measure until 2025 that was attached to the SAVE Act.
One hope for supporters of the plan was to set the stage for attacks on Democrats who oppose the foreign national voting issue. Five House Democrats voted in favor of the standalone House bill earlier this year. But Democrats counter that it is already illegal for foreign nationals to vote and have raised concerns about the requirement to burden voters.
Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), who stepped down as chairman of the House Freedom Caucus after losing his primary election, is part of a group of hardline conservatives who would normally oppose any stopgap measures, but Good supports the bill out of a desire to avoid a year-end omnibus spending bill that favors Democratic priorities and policies, and he hopes that former President Trump could sign a more favorable spending bill into law if he wins the presidential election.
“I think it's worth trying to avoid the CR during the lame duck period and trying to avoid issuing an omnibus bond in December, which I think would be a much worse outcome,” Good said. “So I think we're going to try and go down this path to avoid that.”
Some lawmakers have been mum on where they stand. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), another Freedom Caucus member, said he knows how he will vote but has refused to disclose his position because he hasn't yet told leadership.
When asked about his position on CR, Rep. Jason Smith (R-Missouri), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said, “I'm not going to shut down the government.” When asked if that meant he would vote for the bill, Smith reiterated that statement.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who said she has never voted for CR before, also said it would be “pointless” to vote for the bill without a clear vision for next steps, but said she wanted to speak with Johnson before saying whether she supported or opposed it.
“What is Speaker Johnson going to do? Are you going to fight for this?” Greene said. “If you're not going to fight for it, then why? Why are we voting for this?”
Mike Lillis and Aris Folley contributed.
