Democrats shout down Republicans after GOP abruptly ends House vote (Photo: Screen capture)
Democrats erupted into a shouting match with Republicans after Speaker Mike Johnson shut down a House vote before they had a chance to cast theirs.
On Wednesday, enough Republican lawmakers signed onto a discharge petition forcing a vote over extending subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. Johnson has long opposed this and refused to bring the bill up for a vote. However, with four GOP members willing to sign onto the petition, the vote was forced.
As the vote to "order the previous question" reached 204 to 203, Johnson abruptly ended the vote, NOTUS reporter Reese Gorman wrote on X.
"Crazy scenes going on in the House floor. The chair just closed the vote on ordering the previous question when it was at 204-203. Some Democrats hadn’t voted yet and were trying to vote no. They are livid [right now] and shouting at the chair," posted Gorman.
Asking to "order the previous question" ends all debate and amendments. The members were given an hour to discuss the matter.
Washington Post reporter Marianna Sotomayor reported, "The House floor is just exploding right now after Republicans – frantic they would lose a procedural hurdle that would force a vote on a Dem discharge petition – closed the vote early. [Republicans] really are playing with the floor right now in ways that's not usual. They're nervous."
She later added, "The threat of a successful ACA extension vote – ever since GOP filed discharge petitions last week has been driving GOP leaders to stop the momentum. But by not allowing moderates an amendment vote on subsidies, Johnson now finds himself in this mess."
NBC News editor Sarah Mimms echoed the Post reporter, observing, "'The House floor is just exploding right now' really feels like a summary of the last two years."
Gorman then noted, "Huge huddle on the house floor right now ... Johnson’s Health Policy advisor is also in the huddle. Johnson just grabbed Rep. Kevin Kiley’s (R-CA) suit as he walked by and pulled him into the huddle."
Early Wednesday, Kiley called Johnson a liar on X after Johnson told Punchbowl News reporter Laura Weiss, "I lament how this turned out in the end."
Weiss asked about the fallout with moderate members who wanted a vote on the ACA subsidies and Johnson replied, "They know. They'll tell you that I worked really hard with them to try to... craft an amendment that would work. In the end, they they opted not to do that. We needed to pay-for – not to get too deep in the weeds, but – we needed a pay-for under the rules. And for whatever reason, they decided they did not want to do that."
"So, I mean, they made the choice. But I understand that there's a desire by a number of those members that they really want to have a vote, and we tried to do that. So we'll see how it turns out today," he continued.
Kiley wrote on X, "This is false. I prepared precisely the amendment the Speaker is describing, and he said it would be ruled out of order."