WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled a six-month stopgap spending bill from heading to the floor for a vote Wednesday, scuttling efforts by the GOP to show solidarity behind their plan, which included a provision requiring ID to register to vote in federal elections.
The spending bill, released by House Republicans last week in the heat of a presidential campaign in which immigration is a central focus, had no chance of becoming law amid opposition from Democrats, a cool response from many GOP senators and a veto threat from the Biden administration.
A number of House GOP lawmakers had also come out against the legislation .
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters that lawmakers plan to work through the weekend to find a path forward on the stopgap spending bill and language that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
“No vote today because we are in the consensus-building business here in Congress; with a small majority, that’s what you do,” he said. “We’re having thoughtful conversations, family conversations within the Republican Conference and I believe we’ll get there.”
Johnson said Congress has “two primary obligations right now.”
One is funding the government ahead of the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, thereby avoiding a shutdown.
And he said the other is addressing concerns about the possibility that people who are not citizens could vote in the November election, even though that is already illegal.
“We’re going to continue to work on this. The whip is going to do the hard work and build consensus. We’re going to work through the weekend on that,” Johnson told reporters. “And I want any member of Congress, in either party, to explain to the American people why we should not ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting in U.S. elections.”
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump posted on social media Tuesday that Republicans should not vote for any short-term spending measure without the sidecar voter ID bill attached.
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, called for a bipartisan negotiation after news broke of Johnson pulling the vote.
“For the good of the American people, Congress must move on from House Republicans’ partisan continuing resolution proposals and begin negotiating a funding bill that can earn the support of both Democrats and Republicans in the House and the Senate,” she said in a statement.
“It is past time for Chairman Tom Cole, Chair Patty Murray, Vice Chair Susan Collins, and I to begin good-faith negotiations on a continuing resolution that will keep government programs and services Americans depend on functioning while we complete our work on full-year funding bills before the end of the 118th Congress,” DeLauro added.
Senators sound off
Maine Sen. Collins, the top Republican on the spending panel, said she’d like to see a stopgap spending bill that lasts through mid-December to incentivize Congress to finish negotiations on the dozen annual government funding bills this calendar year.
Those talks were supposed to be wrapped up before the end of this month, but neither chamber has begun conference negotiations, leading to the need for the stopgap spending bills.
“I’ve made clear that I think we need to get our work done as soon as possible, and that the CR should not go beyond mid-December,” Collins said. “If it goes beyond mid-December, it places the new administration at a huge disadvantage, because they’re going to have to deal with issues that date back to October of this year, rather than focusing on the FY 26 budget, which I would think would be their preference.”
West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican on the Labor-HHS-Education spending subcommittee, said the Senate should wait a bit longer to see if the House can send over a bill, though not indefinitely.
“Obviously they have some struggles, which is not surprising,” she said of the House. “We’ll just wait. And if it gets to the point where it doesn’t look like they can act, then we may have to step in, but I wouldn’t say that’s the preferred path.”
Capito said that talks on the stopgap spending bills, which Congress enacts every year after missing their deadline, “have a tendency to fall into place much more quickly than what you might think.”
Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, chairman of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee, said he wants to see a stopgap spending bill that lasts until mid-December, citing concerns from the Department of Defense about a longer continuing resolution.
“Yeah, shit, I’d like to have the appropriations done by the end of September, but yeah, the shorter, the better,” he said.
Tester said he supports the legislation that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, but disagreed with House GOP leaders’ choice to attach it to the stopgap spending bill.
“I don’t think it should be on the appropriations bill. It just mucks things up,” Tester said. “Let’s take it to the floor and debate. I’ll vote for it, even though it’s not necessary.”
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