Inside Mike Johnson's déjà vu cycle of failed rule votes
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House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks at a news conference on June 30. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Speaker Mike Johnson will face the same problem next week that he faced last week: a bloc of Republicans willing to shut down the House floor over the GOP's signature election bill, the SAVE Act.
Why it matters: It's difficult to see how Johnson (R-La.) will overcome the paralysis that has overtaken the House floor — and Republicans across the conference are increasingly frustrated.
- Johnson presided over the ninth failed rule vote of his less-than-three-year-long speakership last week, this one tanked by 13 of his members.
- Frustration in the conference with a small band of conservatives who keep using procedural rule votes — once a rubber stamp for the majority — as leverage to force action on unrelated priorities extends well beyond the speaker and his leadership team.
- It was the fifth failed vote on a rule in this Congress, and the 12th since Republicans took the majority in January 2023. Before that, a rule hadn't failed in two decades.
Driving the news: For the last two working weeks, Johnson was forced to scrap planned legislative business and end the House's week early after his members took down a rule vote.
- The bulk of those members tanked last week's vote on the National Defense Authorization Act because it doesn't include an amendment on the SAVE Act.
- The SAVE Act was also the culprit the previous week.
Between the lines: The repeated shutdowns of House floor action are wearing on members who say they're wasting valuable legislative time to make a point that won't change the bill's prospects in the Senate.
What they're saying: "The SAVE America Act? It's over there," Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.) told Axios in the Capitol last month, gesturing toward the Senate. "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."
- "The votes are where they are. I mean, you just got to accept reality," Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) told Axios.
Asked about the standstill, Johnson told "Fox News Sunday" that he "just decided it was best to send everybody home to go celebrate July 4 in their districts.'
- "We'll come back, gather everybody together," he said, adding that there was a "big urgency" to pass the SAVE Act before the November midterms.
- "The President has that as a top priority, and so do I."
What's next: Johnson hopes to pass a version of the SAVE Act that would create a grant program incentivizing states to adopt voter ID laws through reconciliation, a process that would only require a simple majority in the Senate.
- But some hardliners are already saying grants wouldn't be enough.
- And GOP leaders are quickly running out of time to pass a third reconciliation bill.
