Speaker Mike Johnson is trapped in a destructive loop. For the second consecutive week, a handful of Republican rebels shut down the House floor by tanking a procedural rule vote, this time killing action on the National Defense Authorization Act. The culprit: a demand that their pet legislation, the SAVE Act, get attached to an unrelated defense bill.
The paralysis is getting worse, not better. Johnson has now presided over nine failed rule votes during his less-than-three-year speakership. What was once a routine procedural formality has become a weapon. Rule votes failed only once every two decades before Republicans took the House majority in January 2023. Since then, twelve have cratered. Last week's collapse marked the fifth failure this Congress.
For two straight weeks, Johnson has been forced to abandon his legislative agenda and send members home early. The Republicans blocking action aren't the usual suspects. These are hardline conservatives weaponizing House rules to force floor time and debate on the SAVE Act, which would create a grant program pushing states toward voter ID requirements.
The frustration is boiling over across the GOP conference. Members who want to move actual legislation are furious at the procedural hostage-taking, especially on a bill that has zero chance of passing the Senate anyway. "The SAVE America Act? It's over there," said Rep. Carlos Giménez, pointing toward the Senate chamber. "We did our thing. You think you're going to force, over here, them to do something different? That's insane, and I don't play insane."
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick was blunt about the mathematics. "The votes are where they are. I mean, you just got to accept reality," he told Axios.
Johnson's response has been defensive. On Fox News Sunday, he portrayed the early adjournment as a gift to members, saying he "just decided it was best to send everybody home to go celebrate July 4 in their districts." But he also signaled urgency about passing the SAVE Act before the midterms, calling it a top priority for the White House and himself.
The speaker's fallback plan involves using budget reconciliation, a process requiring only a simple Senate majority instead of 60 votes. Johnson hopes to pass a reconciliation version of the SAVE Act that would offer grants to states adopting voter ID laws. The catch: some hardliners are already signaling that grants alone won't satisfy them.
Time is collapsing. Republicans have limited reconciliation bills available this Congress, and Johnson is running out of runway to thread the needle between his party's warring factions. The dysfunction that has crippled the House floor shows no signs of resolution as long as a determined bloc of conservatives can hold up votes whenever they feel their priorities are sidelined.
Author James Rodriguez: "Johnson's inability to corral his own members on basic procedural votes is a warning sign that his speakership remains fundamentally unstable."
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