Republican discontents could derail Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to fund the government as he attempts to keep it from shutting down later this month.
Congress needs to pass government funding bills before the end of this month or a shutdown of the critical organs of the federal structure will ensue on October 1.
Johnson unveiled a funding proposal publicly on Friday and Democrats in both chambers are already vehemently against the measure.
They are against Johnson’s tricky attachment of a conservative bill – the SAVE Act – to government funding. The SAVE Act would bolster security against illegal immigrants voting in U.S. elections, but Democrats say it’s unnecessary.
And as leadership tries to tally how many members they can count on, some are telling Republican Speaker Johnson they are not backing him up.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is counting on getting all of his GOP colleagues on board with his funding plan with the SAVE Act attached, after all, immigration is a top issue for the party. But one Republican told DailyMail.com ‘Hell no’ he won’t be helping Johnson’s gambit
Further exasperating the issue is the number of votes Johnson can lose to still pull off this gambit.
Currently, 220 of the 435 members in the House of Representatives are Republicans while there are 211 Democrats. There are four vacancies.
Johnson can only afford to lose four votes from his Republican party to pass the bill.
And one of those members told DailyMail.com ‘Hell no’ he is not backing the speaker’s funding plan.
‘I’m voting Hell No on the ‘Continuing Appropriations and Other Matter Act’ this week,’ Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said in a statement to DailyMail.com.
‘I don’t care which bright shiny object is attached to it, or which fake fight we start and won’t finish.’
‘Congress is spending our country into oblivion, and this bill doesn’t cut spending,’ he concluded – cementing his position against the bill over it not addressing the explosive growth of the $35 trillion U.S. national debt.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has ardently fought against increased government spending in funding votes throughout his career
But a House leadership aide told DailyMail.com the team is not worried, and many on-the-fence Republicans are enticed by the bill’s current form.
‘The length for a CR, as well as bills attached like the SAVE Act, could impact whether some Republicans typically against the spending measure are swayed to vote for it,’ they said.
However another senior House GOP aide told DailyMail.com ‘it only takes a few’ Republicans to defect to crush this effort.
And Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., this source said, is also against Johnson’s bill.
The Montana Republican who is retiring at the end of this term posted on social media that though he backed it, he thinks it could tank the funding effort and equated it to a ‘messaging’ stunt by leadership.
‘I wasn’t sent to Washington to deliver disingenuous and dishonest messaging bills. I was sent to Washington to deliver results for Montanans. Attaching the SAVE Act to a CR doesn’t increase its chances of passage or reduce our deficit… it creates a messaging bill,’ he wrote.
The aide also said House Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., who lost his primary earlier this year to John McGuire, may be inclined to go against the bill because ‘he’s got nothing to lose.’
A senior House GOP aide told DailyMail.com Rosendale and Good could likely come out against the funding bill proposed by Speaker Johnson
The fiery conservative leader who lost his seat by a couple hundred votes has often not seen eye-to-eye with Johnson, and this could be a way to jam the leader on the Virginian’s way out.
However, Good has signaled his support for the bill, including on his X where he claimed to ‘fully support’ Johnson’s plan.
Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., reportedly vented his frustration with Johnson’s plan on a conference-wide phone call last week, saying if a government shutdown does occur as a result of the funding fight, as many as 10 Republicans could lose their races this year.
But in a statement to DailyMail.com, he said he supports Johnson’s plan
‘Every member of Congress, whether Republican or Democrat, should prioritize keeping the government open while ensuring only U.S. citizens can vote in our elections,’ he said.
‘I’m ready to support a bill that achieves both goals. Our democracy will be stronger if Senate Democrats join House Republicans in advancing these two critical initiatives.’
A group of migrants from Asia sit near the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona awaiting a ride from Border Patrol to a processing center. Republicans have said that noncitizens voting in U.S. elections could sway the results
Democrats claim laws already prohibit noncitizens from voting in U.S. elections
Those Senate Democrats have already signaled that the funding bill, if it contains the voting reforms, will be dead on arrival to the upper chamber.
‘As we have said each time we’ve had a CR, the only way to get things done is in a bipartisan way and that is what has happened every time,’ Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement last week.
On Monday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also called on his caucus to vote against Johnson’s funding bill.
‘The partisan and extreme continuing resolution put forth by House Republicans is unserious and unacceptable,’ he wrote in a ‘dear colleagues’ letter.
‘In order to avert a GOP-driven government shutdown that will hurt everyday Americans, Congress must pass a short-term continuing resolution that will permit us to complete the appropriations process during this calendar year and is free of partisan policy changes inspired by Trump’s Project 2025.’
The Biden-Harris administration’s Office of Management and Budget also came out against the Johnson plan, writing Monday it ‘strongly opposes’ the passage of the bill.
But the SAVE Act is not extreme, Republicans allege, often pointing at the original bill that passed the chamber earlier this summer with five Democratic votes.
The SAVE Act would require voters prove their identity with IDs, passports, birth certificates or another form of official documentation
The SAVE Act is a central piece to the GOP’s messaging on immigration and border security. It is also an election integrity issue, Republicans say, a popular issue among members.
The bill would close any loopholes that allow people to register to vote without proof of U.S. citizenship or photo ID, require all 50 states to remove any unlawful immigrants from their voter rolls, add penalties of up to five years in prison for election officials who register non-citizens to vote and require proof of citizenship for those who vote overseas.
Most voting ballots require some kind of proof of identity to register to vote, such as a driver’s license.
Not all of those proofs of ID require citizenship – the bill would specifically require ID requirements like passports or birth certificates.
But the risky move of marrying the SAVE Act to the funding bills could backfire as some, like Massie, are not wanting another CR.
