Speaker Johnson axes Trump’s voting rules on the government funding bill

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday unveiled a new interim government funding proposal with key amendments from the original bill filed earlier this month, going against former President Donald Trump’s wishes and making some concessions to Democrats.

The new bill will fund the government through December 20 and does not include part of the SAVE Act, an election security proposal supported by Trump that requires people to show proof of citizenship to register as voters.

In a letter to colleagues on Sunday, Johnson said his “very narrow, bare-bones” proposal would include “only the extensions that are absolutely necessary” to prevent the government from running.

Republican and Democratic congressmen have eight days to reach a deal on government funding. If no resolution is reached, the government will face a partial shutdown on Oct. 1 at 12:01 a.m. ET, just over a month from the November election when party control of the White House and Congress will be seized.

“While this is not the desired solution, it is the most prudent course of action under the current circumstances,” Johnson wrote in the letter. “As history teaches and current polls confirm, shutting down the government less than 40 days before an upcoming election would be an act of political misconduct.”

The new bill is expected to hit the House floor on Wednesday, according to House Republican aides.

The three-month spending plan also includes $231 million for the Secret Service, responding to increased pressure from the agency for more resources after last week’s assassination attempt on Trump.

A previous version of Johnson’s bill would have funded the government through March 2025, meaning the funding level was set for the president and the newly elected Congress. It also comes with SAVE code attached.

Trump favored a repeat of the spending resolution. He wrote in Truth Social earlier this month that if Republicans “don’t get an absolute guarantee of Election Security,” they shouldn’t hesitate to shut down the government.

But the six-month stopgap funding bill paired with the SAVE Act is struggling to get it to die in the House Republican caucus. Some GOP members are fighting the idea of ​​temporarily funding the government. Others took issue with certain funding allocations, which would be fixed within six months if the bill passes.

With a razor-thin majority in the House, Johnson could only lose four GOP votes to pass the bill in his own chamber.

“Since we are short of the goal line, an alternative plan is now required,” Johnson wrote to his teammates in a Sunday letter.

Democrats also vowed to vote against the six-month bill plus the SAVE Act. That means the proposal will die when it reaches the Democratic-majority Senate.

By scrapping the SAVE Act and introducing a three-month bill, Johnson’s new funding proposal represents a major compromise with Democrats.

President Joe Biden and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer both supported short-term proposals without a paired bill so that in January, the newly elected governing body could start with a blank slate.

Schumer welcomed the change from the House speaker.

“Now we have good news,” Schumer said at a press conference Sunday, noting that a government impeachment would be avoided.

“Now that the GOP’s MAGA bill has failed, it’s clearly the only bipartisan budget bill that will open up the government,” he said. “This is the fiery red knot that MAGA has tied in the GOP has loosened.”

Johnson’s concessions to Democrats may have been the speaker. Its predecessor, former Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, became the first House speaker to be removed from office after striking a deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown in October 2023.