Sept. 11 (UPI) — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday withdrew the GOP government funding bill from a scheduled vote after opposition from several Republican members forced him to postpone it.
“We are going to continue to work on this,” Johnson said. “The whip is going to do the hard work to build consensus and work on the weekend on that.”
Nearly a dozen Republicans in the House said they plan to vote against funding the government.
The GOP government funding measure includes the SAVE Act. It requires proof of citizenship to vote, a measure backed by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump but opposed by House Democrats.
Democrats, noting it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote, said the GOP government funding bill also contains spending cuts backed by right-wing MAGA politicians that will hurt average-income Americans.
Speaking with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said of the GOP government funding bill, “What is taking place right now is that the extreme MAGA Republicans are trying to jam extreme right-wing cuts down the throats of the American people and the bill that will be before the House of Representatives tomorrow hurts our military readiness. It hurts our veterans. It hurts the Social Security Administration. It will hurt seniors. And, of course, it’s going to hurt disaster relief efforts by shortchanging them, as well. We’re going to vote no against it.”
Speaker Johnson is aligned with Trump trying to block government funding unless Democrats go along with the hard-right demands on the other issues included in the bill.
Johnson had said just hours before the funding bill and SAVE Act were scheduled for a House vote that he intended to bring it to the House floor for a vote Wednesday.
“Sometimes you have to do the right thing and let the chips fall where they may,” Johnson told The Hill on Tuesday morning.
The Democratic-controlled Senate opposes the funding bill if it includes the citizen voting provision and budget cuts backed by far-right Republicans. That makes the bill dead on arrival in the Senate if the House passes it as is.
The White House has also said Biden will veto the bill if it includes those provisions.
Johnson told reporters that while the funding bill was pulled from a scheduled vote Wednesday, “We are having thoughtful conversations, family conversations within the Republican Conference and I believe we will get there.”
