After Weeks of Stalemate, Johnson Gets House Floor Reopened With Promises to Conservatives

House conservatives and their Republican leaders have made peace on a series of concessions that will allow House business to resume following a furious standoff over the Senate’s failure to take up a voting identification and proof of citizenship bill. The palace intrigue began nearly one month ago, when conservative lawmakers brought debate crashing to a halt over the reluctance of the Senate to take up the SAVE America Act, which the House has passed multiple times but Majority Leader John Thune refused to consider.The method of conservatives’ defiance was a finicky requirement that the House adopt a “rule” before conducting any simple-majority votes on the floor. The rule sets parameters for debate and the amendment process. If no rule is adopted, then it takes a two-thirds majority to pass anything through the House.Democrats never join Republicans to support a rule for debate because the House speaker, Mike Johnson, never permits Democrats to add amendments to bills. As a result, conservatives adamant about the SAVE America Act were able to leverage the two-thirds requirement to bend the speaker to their will. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, the leader of the faction that has been tanking rule votes, announced Monday that she would support adoption of a rule to proceed with debate. GOP members on Tuesday voted 215 to 211 to allow the rule. Just one GOP member, Congressman Randy Fine, voted no.They agreed for a resumption of vote-taking after Mr. Johnson said he would attach the SAVE America Act to another important piece of legislation that the Senate must take up in the coming months. The most likely vehicle will be legislation to fund the State Department and other foreign aid operations, though the speaker could also attach it to the National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes funding and policy changes at the Pentagon every year. The ongoing problem for the renegades, however, is that Mr. Thune can simply remove the SAVE America Act from any bill sent by the speaker to the Senate. Ms. Luna has come to the conclusion that if the SAVE America Act does fail in the Senate, then that is on Mr. Thune.“We will try the … process on the condition that Speaker Johnson attaches the SAVE America Act to all the appropriation bills and all must-pass bills here in the House and ensures it is sent to the Senate as one bill,” Ms. Luna wrote on X Monday night. “If John Thune strips it out in the Senate that will be on him and the entire country should be watching what he does.”“If he wants to actively work against Voter I.D. & the SAVE America Act he must face the consequences of his actions. His State party should censure him and/or he should be primaried if he wants to betray his constituents in this manner. That is the nature of politics,” Ms. Luna argued.While some Republicans had shut down the House floor over the SAVE America Act, others wanted guarantees that the House would vote on legislation to codify new border security and immigration restrictions. Congressman Chip Roy, the author of the border security bill that is most commonly known as H.R. 2, voted with Ms. Luna against a rule last month after Mr. Johnson failed to call up his legislation before the Fourth of July. “Nearly every House Republican voted for these commonsense border policies last Congress. They can do it again,” Mr. Roy’s office said in a post on X Tuesday. “Enough excuses — secure the border for good.”

After Weeks of Stalemate, Johnson Gets House Floor Reopened With Promises to Conservatives

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