WASHINGTON — Lawmakers rejected a plot by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to combine legislation to fund the government with a right-wing law that attacks the illusory threat of illegal voting.
Johnson’s gamble failed, thanks to unified opposition from Democrats and a few Republicans who complained that the bill didn’t cut government spending enough.
The vote was 202-220, with two members of the House, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) voting “absent.” Fourteen Republicans broke ranks to vote with Democrats against the bill, while three Democrats voted with Republicans in favor.
The bill’s defeat did not come as a surprise – Johnson originally called for a vote last week, but postponed it after several members of his own party warned they would vote against the package.
Before Wednesday’s failed vote, Republicans openly talked about a plan B, with Johnson himself suggesting, in an extended football metaphor, that he should call another game when this one didn’t produce a win.
“We’re on the field in the middle of the play, the quarterback calls the play, we’re going to run the play,” Johnson said. “We obviously have a thick playbook with all kinds of ideas. But when you’re on the field calling the play, you’re directing the play.”
Rep. Ralph Norman (R.S.C.), who voted for the bill, expressed displeasure with the outcome, particularly the number of GOP defections. “I’m disappointed in that.”
But he said Republicans just need to go back to the drawing board.
“We’ll bounce back,” Norman said. “Where we are now, everything is smooth sailing.”
One outcome many Republicans expect is for Johnson to introduce a short-term government funding bill, known as a continuing resolution, without voter fraud. language attached. Johnson himself refused to rule out passing a clean finance bill in response to a reporter’s question last week.
However, former President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on Republicans to shut down the government if Democrats do not pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act or the SAVE Act.
“If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act and every one of it, they shouldn’t pass a continuing resolution in any way, shape, or form,” Trump wrote on his website on Wednesday. “Democrats are registering illegal voters by the TEN’S OF THOUSANDS as we speak – They’re voting in the 2024 presidential election and they shouldn’t allow it.”
Republicans have presented no evidence whatsoever that illegal immigrants are registering to vote in huge numbers. It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, and voter registration forms already require signatories to prove their citizenship under penalty of perjury. For these reasons According to experts, voting by non-citizens is extremely rare.
The SAVE Act would require Americans to provide proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, as well as other identification in order to register to vote. But as several Republicans acknowledged to HuffPost last week, most of the people who will vote in the upcoming election are already registered. Even if the bill becomes law this week, it would be too late for it to have much of an impact in November.
Nevertheless, Trump is using the bill to bolster his false claims that Democrats are using immigrants to cheat. Similar lies about election fraud fueled an attack by a group of Trump supporters on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as part of Trump’s broader effort to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden.
Government funding ends at the end of the month. Several Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have said a government shutdown right before the November election is unacceptable.
“Any shutdown would be idiotic and detract from the focus on issues that really affect the American people,” Rep. Mike Lawler (RN.Y.) said last week. “From my perspective, we have one job: keep the government funded and get to November. And then the American people will determine the direction of the country going forward.”
Rep. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), the lead author of the SAVE Act, told reporters before the vote that a clean government funding bill was inevitable and chided his colleagues for not agreeing to Johnson’s plan.
“There’s going to be a funding bill, and when there’s a funding bill, the people who oppose this will have to answer why they’re happy to side with the Democrats,” Roy said.
“We’ve got to get back to some sensible ways of doing things, the way we do things in Tennessee. This just isn’t it [reasonable],” said Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who was among 14 Republicans who voted against the bill on Wednesday.
While House Republicans’ next steps remained unclear, Lawler, who voted for the bill, sounded optimistic.
“Look, we’re not going to shut down the government 48 days after the election,” he told reporters.
