Johnson’s government funding strategy is kept alive as defections grow

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Mike Johnson’s strategy to link a short-term government funding bill to a Donald Trump-backed proposal to overhaul election law was put on hold Monday after a group of conservative rebels vowed to vote against the package.

Without a transitional law, the money will run out and the federal government will have to close at the end of the month.

Because of the Republicans’ razor-thin majority, Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, can afford only four 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 will not support Johnson’s plan to avert a government shutdown on Sept. 30.

Many other Republicans said they were undecided.

Johnson is proposing a six-month resolution tied to the so-called SAVE Act. The bill, sponsored by former President Donald Trump, would change voting laws nationwide by requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Trump has called on Republicans in Congress to pass the SAVE Act – which Democrats, who control the Senate and White House, refuse to do – or shut down the government.

Mills criticized Johnson’s strategy as a “farce” and said it would do nothing to secure the southern border.

“If we can’t close the border, I’m in favor of shutting down the government,” Mills told reporters.

Rosendale said, “I have not supported CR since I arrived here and have no plans to start now.”

He dismissed concerns that a shutdown could backfire on Republicans, saying he did not believe a shutdown would ultimately happen.

When asked if his CR plan could pass the House of Representatives, Johnson replied, “We’ll find out.”

The rising number of defectors meant a rocky start for Republicans as they returned to the Capitol from their six-week summer break.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Johnson plan was doomed from the start in the Senate, and President Joe Biden has said he will veto the package if it ever lands on his desk.

But with the Republican plan set to fail in the House, Democrats may not have to abandon it at all. Instead, they are pushing for “clean CR” – short-term funding with no strings attached.

“The House Republicans’ CR is simply frivolous. It is pure partisan posturing,” Schumer said in a speech on Monday. “Democrats will do everything they can to prevent a Republican-orchestrated shutdown. We are prepared to work on a bipartisan bill that keeps the government open. Any superfluous provisions that hinder that goal should be set aside.”

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland predicted that Republicans would pay a price for shutting down the government.

“I hope Republicans have learned their lesson and know that if they shut down the government, the people will punish them,” Raskin said. “And government shutdowns are a tremendously wasteful, profligate and self-destructive thing to do. … Donald Trump is teaching them to do that.”