House delays vote on GOP measure to fund the government

Washington — Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that the House would not proceed with a planned vote on a stopgap measure to keep the government funded past the end of the month, in an acknowledgment of opposition from members of his own party that likely would have doomed the bill to fail.

“No vote today because we’re in the consensus-building business,” Johnson told reporters. 

Lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill from their August recess on Monday and have until the end of the month to fund the government, making a short-term measure necessary to avert a government shutdown. House Republican leadership unveiled their opening salvo in the funding fight in recent days with a plan to push for a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through March 28, while attaching a noncitizen voting bill that Democrats generally see as a nonstarter. 

The House-passed measure known as the SAVE Act is aimed at targeting illegal voting, which is exceedingly rare. The legislation would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, despite the fact that only U.S. citizens are eligible to vote in federal elections under current law. 

The addition of the measure is viewed as a sweetener for House conservatives who often oppose continuing resolutions to keep the government funded. But Democratic leaders in the Senate have made clear that the plan to pair the voting legislation with a stopgap measure is dead on arrival in the upper chamber, and the White House has issued a veto threat. 

The Democratic opposition didn’t stop Johnson from pledging to barrel forward with the plan, and he’s suggested there’s no backup. And former President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged GOP lawmakers to pursue the voting legislation in a post on social media, saying, “If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security,” they shouldn’t move forward with a clean continuing resolution to keep the government funded.

House Republicans began expressing their opposition for the funding plan on Tuesday, throwing the vote into question, given the razor-thin GOP majority in the House.

Johnson appeared resolved to move ahead with the vote until Wednesday, with just hours before the planned vote and a number of Republicans from different factions of the party pledging to oppose the measure. The Louisiana Republican said House leadership would delay the vote to work to build consensus through the weekend.

“The American people demand and deserve that we do everything possible to secure the elections,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I want any member of Congress in either party to explain to the American people why we should not ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting in U.S. elections.”

With the plan, the House and Senate remain at an impasse. The upper chamber and the White House are pushing for a short-term measure to keep the government funded until December without any partisan bills attached. But punting the funding deadline to the new year could be more favorable for Republicans should Trump return to the White House in 2025.

Jaala Brown and Laura Garrison contributed to this report.