Mike Johnson kills gov’t funding bill with policy Trump demanded due to lack of GOP support
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) is now back to the drawing board in his attempts to keep the federal government open after a GOP wish-list policy crashed and burned during pre-vote negotiations.
According to CNBC, the Louisiana Republican has calculated that his version of a must-pass government funding bill no longer has the votes after a decisive number of his fellow Republicans signaled their intent to vote it down. The outlet reported that there are as many as 15 GOP members of the House of Representatives who would not vote for the legislation in its current form. In order to pass a bill without any Democratic support, Johnson can only afford two defections assuming full attendance given his razor-thin majority.
"We’re going to work through the weekend on that," Johnson said. "No vote today because we’re in the consensus-building business here in Congress with small majorities."
READ MORE: 'Real division': House GOP fears infighting over next spending bill could cost them election
The bill would have funded government agencies through March of 2025, with the SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) as a rider on the package. That bill — which former President Donald Trump demanded be included in the legislation — would require that Americans first show their proof of citizenship when registering to vote.
Trump was so insistent on the SAVE Act's inclusion in the latest appropriations bill that he called for the federal government to be shut down in order to force the issue.
“If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET. THE DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO ‘STUFF’ VOTER REGISTRATIONS WITH ILLEGAL ALIENS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN – CLOSE IT DOWN!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this week.
The version of the bill with the SAVE Act included would effectively be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate. However, House Republicans' objections to the bill weren't over the SAVE Act, but due to the funding levels proposed in the legislation. Some members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus were upset that the bill Johnson was asking them to support didn't include steep cuts to federal agencies.
READ MORE: Trump calls for government shutdown
"I have never voted for a CR [continuing resolution] to kick the can down the road and continue the Democrats' budget," Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) said in a video message on Tuesday.
Both Johnson and Trump have maintained that the SAVE Act is necessary to prevent non-citizens from voting. However, it's already illegal for non-citizens to vote, and there is no evidence that there is a widespread problem of non-citizen voting necessitating government action. And according to the Brennan Center for Justice, there are millions of American citizens who could be prevented from voting due to the additional obstacle of obtaining citizenship documents.
"Our research indicates that more than 9 percent of American citizens of voting age, or 21.3 million people, don’t have proof of citizenship readily available. There are myriad reasons for this — the documents might be in the home of another family member or in a safety deposit box," the Brennan Center wrote in June. "And at least 3.8 million don’t have these documents at all, often because they were lost, destroyed, or stolen."
Click here to read CNBC's report in full.
READ MORE: GOP unveils stopgap funding plan pushing 'manufactured' issue of non-citizen voter fraud
