Speaker Mike Johnson's government funding strategy is on life support as defections mount
House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson's plan to avoid a government shutdown and pass a Donald Trump-backed voting bill is facing opposition from conservatives.
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson’s strategy to tie a short-term government funding bill to a Donald Trump-backed proposal to overhaul voting laws was on life support Monday after a band of conservative rebels vowed to vote no on the package.
Without a stopgap funding bill, money will run out and the federal government will shut down at the end of the month.
Because of the GOP’s razor-thin majority, Johnson, R-La., can afford only four Republican defections if all members vote. At least five Republicans — Cory Mills, of Florida; Matt Rosendale, of Montana; Tim Burchett, of Tennessee; Jim Banks, of Indiana; and Thomas Massie, of Kentucky — say they wouldn’t support the Johnson plan to avert a government shutdown on Sept. 30.
House Speaker Mike Johnson during the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wis., on July 16, 2024.David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty ImagesMany other Republicans said they were on the fence.
Johnson is proposing a six-month continuing resolution, or CR, coupled with the so-called SAVE Act, legislation backed by former President Donald Trump that would change voting laws nationwide by requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Trump has called on congressional Republicans to pass the SAVE Act — which Democrats, who control the Senate and the White House, oppose — or allow the government to shut down.
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