House Republicans are disheartened as they prepare to push back the government shutdown deadline for a second time without any major wins, an outcome some blame on dysfunction among their own party.
Despite their majority in the House, Republicans will likely again have to rely on a few dozen Democrats to pass a three-month budget extension.
Because of opposition from hardline conservatives, Republicans cannot pass the bill with just Republican votes, and because they must rely on House Democrats to advance the bill, they have no leverage in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Wednesday's vote will be the final legislative action in the House before the election and will be emblematic of the controversy that has plagued the House Republican Conference for the past 21 months, contributing to two speaker fights, multiple embarrassing floor vote defeats and intraparty fighting that has spilled into public view.
“I've been here for over a year now and it's the same old thing over and over again,” said Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania), a former chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
Facing pressure from the right and from former President Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) voted last week on a six-month stopgap measure along with a bill that would require proof of citizenship to vote in U.S. elections.
The bill never garnered enough support to become law due to opposition from Senate Democrats and the White House, which argued that it is already illegal for non-US citizens to vote in elections and that the law could burden people who are already eligible to vote, but Republicans pushed the bill forward in hopes of gaining more influence over Senate Democrats.
But 14 House Republicans blocked that strategy by voting down the six-month stopgap measure and the Protect American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, dealing a blow to Johnson and weakening his ability to secure a conservative victory. The 14 members included hard-line conservatives who were upset that no spending cuts were made and defense hawks who worried about the impact the six-month measure would have on the Pentagon.
Some Republicans, including some past right-wing firebrands, have targeted hardliners who thwarted Johnson's initial attack, which they say led to an unwanted stopgap measure until December 20.
“In their defense, they tried to implement the SAVE Act first,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said of House leadership, “but there were also people who wanted a comprehensive bill and voted against it.”
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), the lead sponsor of the SAVE Act, blamed 14 Republicans for blocking the Speaker's strategy after they voiced their opposition to the stopgap bill on Dec. 20. Roy said their efforts are fueling the fairly muted anger shown by conservative Republicans.
“I am strongly opposed to the three-month grace period. [continuing resolution] “I don't think that should happen in the chamber, but it will be hard to galvanise it when the people criticising it are the same people who created the environment that led to it,” Roy said.
“Some members of the conference who tied his hands for us to have a strategy to fight were wrong,” he later added.
Johnson argued Tuesday that the three-month stopgap measure prevented the Senate from cramming additional funding that House Republicans would dislike even more, even if it's not what Republicans wanted.
But in a further blow, Mr. Johnson was forced to change his bill-advancing procedures after Republican objections threatened to derail a procedural vote, forcing him to introduce the bill under suspension of House rules on Wednesday and making clear that Republicans need Democratic support.
Despite these setbacks, many Republicans recognize the difficult situation Johnson is in and have refrained from attacking him.
“Chairman Johnson is doing his best with a zero-vote majority and taking on the giant machine that is Washington in a presidential election year,” said Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana), the lead sponsor of the six-month continuing resolution that failed last week.
Still, Higgins said he would probably vote against the three-month temporary measure.
Wednesday's vote casts doubt on Johnson's chances of remaining the top House Republican in the next Congress. Johnson won the speaker position after a stormy race last year and has already survived attempts spearheaded by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to oust him from the speaker position.
Most lawmakers acknowledge that Johnson's political future will depend most on whether Republicans win the House and how many seats they gain. But it will also be important how he handles the legislative issues, such as spending, that most irritate his Republican opponents in the House.
One of the biggest concerns of hard-line conservatives, and the reason they've been pushing for a six-month deadline, is that the Dec. 20 government shutdown deadline sets the stage for a massive end-of-year omnibus spending package packed with the lame-duck Biden administration's priorities.
Prime Minister Johnson promised on Tuesday that the House of Commons would not approve a “Christmas Omnibus Bill”.
“We've broken the Christmas Omni and we're not going back to that awful tradition,” Johnson said, ruling out any form of “minibus” funding that would provide large sums of money to the government by combining some of 12 regular spending bills.
“We don't need buses,” he added. “We're not going to run buses, OK?”
But some Republicans question whether Johnson can deliver on that promise.
“I trust what the speaker is saying and I'm glad he said that and he's right to say that,” Roy said, before adding, “I'm a little skeptical. History has shown that fights over spending in December don't end well for the American people.”
“Let's see what happens in December,” Roy said. “I hope the chairman means it and I believe what he says, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens,” he added.
Ultimately, some Republicans argued that the source of discontent lay in a culture of staunch House Republicans that exists within the slim GOP majority.
“You have terrorists who won't vote for anything unless it's perfect, and then you have people who won't fight to achieve anything,” said Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), who was expelled from the House Freedom Caucus earlier this year after he publicly criticized other members of the caucus.
